


Chemistry of Cooking and Other Odd Events

by Agraulis_vanillae



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Swapfell, Alternate Universe - Underfell, Alternate Universe - Underswap, Anti-Monster Sentiment, Bad Cooking, Bad Puns, Cooking, Exploration, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, GraffiTale cameo, Graffiti, My cat tried to coauthor chapter 31, Oblivious, Other, Overprotective Sans, Possible violence, Romance, She's a terrible writer, Soul Interaction, Swearing, Underfell Bonus (4/4) Complete, Underfell Bonus Chapter, Underswap Bonus (4/4) Complete, Underswap Bonus Chapter, Underswap Papyrus, creative swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-05-15 21:15:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 53
Words: 128,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5800366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agraulis_vanillae/pseuds/Agraulis_vanillae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taking place about a year after Frisk and Asriel breaks the barrier, you finally see your first monster... and you can't help but like the guy. And his friends. Together everyone was silly, sweet, supportive... it seems Sans doesn't quite trust you though? You could only hope that it isn't because you're tutoring Papyrus, because you're doing your best to keep both of your grades up!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Semester, New Friend

It was back to school, and much to your reluctance, you heeded the blare of the alarm, got dressed, and headed out, gnawing on apple mindlessly. You happened to arrive much too early, finding the classroom much sooner than expected and upon viewing the giant screen for the projector suspended over the teacher's desk, you opted for middle seating to avoid craning your neck. Most of your classes were difficult and time consuming thanks to your choice in a Bachelor's of Science, so you chose elective classes like Food Science and World Literature to balance out your schedule.

  
Booting up your laptop, you tracked Book-In-Your-Face news, scanning for anything new involving human and monster rights. Civilization in general got a lot more interesting once the self professed “monsters” broke out from underground and had simply asserted themselves into society and every day life. About a year ago, there were even monsters attending universities and human schools, and even though there were supposed to be a few monsters attending your university the campus was so large you hadn't seen heads or tails of them yet.

  
Unsurprisingly there were advocates of pushing monsters out, but considering the fact that humans have long lost any abilities even remotely resembling magic, there wasn't much they could do legally. In reality, monsters simply added to the growing list of ethnic and minority groups that suffered from hate crimes. You for one, just desperately needed to see a monster. Like, any monster. Your creative impulses had been suffocating under the constant flow of work study and acadamia and the great variety of physical appearances in the monster race was just too damn cool to ignore. That being said, you probably had to make your observations on the down low. You didn't need to offend anyone, especially given your tendency to put your foot in your mouth on occasion.

  
As classmates shuffled in, you sighed and clicked off your social account, seeing nothing particularly new or interesting. You were about to close down your laptop when someone literally yelling marched in jauntily.  
“IS THIS FOOD SCIENCE 101-201 FOR ALICE LEVAN?!!”

  
Your first thought was that someone was playing a dumb joke, because the person in question appeared to be an anatomy class skeleton??? In a superhero costume of some sort? The only thing about this that seemed remotely reasonable fashion was the ragged scarf turned cape wrapped around the neck. As you watched your new classmates glance to each other uneasily, the skeleton essentially bounced it's (his?) way to the very front of the classroom. You were suddenly very aware that this was actually a monster, and no one had even responded to his question.

  
“Uh-um, I think this is it. I'm pretty sure your section number doesn't really matter, except for the 'lab' portion,” you, called to him, wiggling your fingers in air quotes for lab, since it was just a kitchen.

  
The skeleton literally just stepped over the front seats to settle in the row right in front of you. You considered yourself to be pretty tall, but the monster kinda looked like someone just stretched him out, with the “armor” making him look more buff than he really was. You know, considering he was just bones.

  
“GREETINGS NEW CLASSMATE I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!!! WHAT IS YOUR NAME, HUMAN?”

  
You cringed at the sheer volume of his voice, and seeing him grin so broadly at you, made you worried that you made a mistake speaking up. Despite having read the news about monsters online, your new encounter made you realize that you had no idea about what differences there were between monsters and humans, socially. You wanted to ask him to lower his voice, but he might get offended? Nonetheless you introduced yourself, and after a moment's hesitation, asked him if it was possible to lower the volume of his voice.

  
“IT'S POSSIBLE FOR ME TO DO MANY THINGS!! THANK YOU FOR ASKING!”  
You laughed a little sheepishly at that. It seems you walked right into that one.  
Fortunately, once the teacher arrived and started class, Papyrus turned around, attentively scrawling away everything she said. Only half listening yourself, you studied him a little, and then shrugged to yourself. He wasn't quite what you were thinking of when you decided you wanted to draw a monster, but at least you didn't make him mad or hurt his feelings. Class almost ended uneventfully, except he jogged up to you suddenly on your way out to the buses.  
Fidgeting, he almost looked embarrassed. “SAY, WOULD YOU KNOW HOW TO DO SOME OF THE CHEMISTRY THAT WAS MENTIONED? I'D ASK MY BROTHER, BUT HE'S LAZY AND HE'LL MAKE AWFUL PUNS THE WHOLE TIME! I'M AFRAID WE'LL GET OFF TRACK. PLUS, HE HAS THIS AWFUL TENDENCY TO PRANK PEOPLE THROUGH SPACE AND TIME WHEN YOU GO INTO HIS ROOM.”

  
You cock your head at this, “Wha- how?!”  
“I DON'T REALLY KNOW?!! IT JUST USUALLY INVOLVES A TREADMILL AND A SELF SUSTAINING TRASH TORNADO,” he huffed, clearly exasperated with the situation.

  
You struggle to contain your confusion, until the image of trash arcing around some guy's bedroom flitted through your mind. The imagery got you giggling, and despite his severe look, you finally say “I... don't even know how to respond to that. But back to your question, I've gotten through general and organic chemistry so I think I'll be able to help you. Do you have a Book-In-Your-Face?”

  
He shook his skull, “DO I NEED ONE?”

  
You waved it off, and pulled out your cell. “No, it's okay, I need to remember to check my phone more often anyway. Let's work on class assignments somewhere on campus, later?”

  
He nodded enthusiastically and you exchanged numbers. Heading off to your next class, the image of a self sustaining tornado popped back into your head and sent you through another fit of laughter. Some of the people around you stopped to give you odd looks. Despite your previous misgivings, it was kind of fun to talk to him once you figured out he wasn't going to try to talk to you during class time. You highly doubted “whispering” with him would actually be sneaky. Then you sighed, seeing the next class in your schedule. The rest of the day is probably going to be really boring now.


	2. Elevator Panic!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're not sure how elevator's work, but they're probably-definitely-not supposed to shut down in the middle of the day. Fortunately, study buddy Papyrus comes to the rescue!!!

You're generally calm person, pretty tranquil at the best of times. The problem being, when you're riding an elevator and the whole thing all but shuts down leaving you 100% Grade A darkness, well... you kinda panic. It took nearly a whole minute to remember they have a button for this sort of emergencies in all of the elevators on campus, and another minute to fumble for your phone. Flopping to the ground, and grimacing as you felt the elevator sway, you strangled the “On” button just to get enough light in the elevator to establish where the control buttons were.

  
Squinting, you carefully found the emergency button, which was only barely red in the start-up light and pressed it hoping that the electricity wasn't completely cut from the elevator. Sitting there rather anticlimactically afterwards, you squirmed, staring down at your phone screen. You could try calling someone, but just about anyone you COULD call you WOULDN'T call in a million years for this situation. Just because you were nervous, read also bordering on terror, doesn't mean you should bring one of your friends or family back in your hometown in on the mess. As you slowly worked through your list of contacts, you happen upon Papyrus's number.

  
You were actually on your way up to a study room in the library when this elevator shut down. Even if you didn't want to talk to anyone else, you thought it might be best to let Papyrus know what was up. Slowly, you started texting him.

  
-hey, I might be late. The elevator's broken

  
-THAT'S ALRIGHT, THAT'S WHAT STAIRS ARE FOR

  
You texted twice, the second text an after thought.

  
-well, about that. I might be inside the elevator?  
-its, uh, pretty dark in here actually lol o_o

  
His response was instantaneous as well as panic inducing. He called. You jumped a mile high in the air, and the elevator swayed again. You nearly dropped your phone in trying to answer. “H-hello?”

  
“I'LL BE THERE IN A LITERAL SECOND, WHICH ELEVATOR?!”

  
“Probably the one that looks broken? Just let me know if there's someone working on it okay? I'm pretty sure I'm safe, just a little... erm...” you fumbled trying to come up with a word other than scared. “Out of it? Like, nervous. I've never seen this happen before.”

  
“THE POWER WENT OFF A FEW MINUTES AGO AND CAME BACK ON. MAYBE THAT'S WHY THE ELEVATOR STOPPED WORKING? HANG ON, THERE'S SOME PEOPLE IN FRONT OF IT-”

  
That was the absolute worst explanation for an elevator turning off that you could ever think of, but then, you didn't know much about the way the building was hooked up to a power source.

  
“IT LOOKS LIKE BOTH ELEVATORS ARE SHUT OFF, BUT THERE ARE SOME WORKMEN ON IT. HEY SIRS MY FRIEND IS IN ONE OF THESE ELEVATORS AND IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE STUDY-”

  
You could hear every word that Papyrus said, but it was harder to make out what people in the surrounding area was saying.

  
“THEY DIDN'T KNOW ANYONE WAS IN THERE ____. THEY'LL WORKING ON IT NOW,” Papyrus reported. “I'LL BE RIGHT HERE!!! WE CAN START STUDYING AS SOON AS YOU GET OUT.”

  
“Oh... thanks I think. Wait, what do you mean they didn't know I was her- oh wait. Right. Power,” you facepalmed. Somehow, you expected the emergency button to work even when there was no power being fed into the elevator. “Well, thanks for the concern. I guess it might've saved us both some time?”

  
“NYEH HEH HEH WELL OF COURSE! I CAN'T JUST LEAVE MY STUDY BUDDY HANGING!!!” Papyrus seemed to preen, even through the phone. You could picture him taking on any number of poses that you've seen him do since class started.

  
“Did you just make a pun?” You asked , feeling yourself grin even as you realized the joke was on you.

  
“I THOUGHT IT MIGHT RELAX YOU!!! BUT ALAS IT SEEMS THAT I'VE ONLY SUCCEEDED IN ALLOWING MY BROTHER'S INFLUENCE TO CORRUPT THE GREAT PAPYRUS,” he lamented loudly. You could just imagine how annoyed the workers and passerby would be getting about now.

  
“Hey, how can you tell I'm tense?” you frowned.

  
“YOU SPEAK QUIETLY WHEN YOU'RE... UNCOMFORTABLE I THINK?”

  
Oh, well that much was true, and the darkness in the elevator had been feeling oppressive, and it made it harder project normally. You didn't quite realize that you'd been hanging around Papyrus long enough for him to pick up that behavioral quirk though. Upon finding out you showed up early to class, he started showing up early as well to work in 5 minutes or so of flashcard sets. Unlike quite a few people you've allowed to rope you into studying with, he was actually fairly serious about understanding the class. Instead of feeling tired and frustrated at the situation, you found that by going over the old material from your chemistry classes that you reinforced what you had learned before. The first test was now in a week and a half, and you were more excited to see Papyrus's grade than you were to see your own.

  
Your musing was interrupted by the sounds above you. You weren't sure quite what was going on, but Papyrus's reaction helped you paint the picture in your mind.

  
“THE DOOR OPENED- I THINK WE'LL BE ABLE TO GET YOU OUT ON THE FLOOR BELOW!” Papyrus reported, and suddenly you could hear a lot more activity going on. If you looked up, you could even imagine a little bit of light leaking through the hatch overhead.  
The activity around the elevator grew from a dull roar to an active chatter when you the doors started creaking open and suddenly you could see your own two feet.

  
“Hey, can you get out?” a strange voice floated up to you, and you turned off your phone to put it away and flatten yourself to the floor. The space between the opening of the elevator and the “wall” was a tight fit, but you knew if you could fit your head through, you could probably wiggle the rest of yourself out. You could see Papyrus all but hovering over the worker's shoulder, peering into the dark space that you were stuck in for the last 10 minutes.

  
“I think so,” you replied. Pushing aside all of your fear as much as possible, you started pushing yourself forward, and too late you realized you were going to do a faceplant as soon as you got out. You hesitated for a second, not looking forward to the undignified pain. “Um...”

  
Before you even had the chance to voice your concern, Papyrus reached into the elevator, and hoisted you through under your arms. You squealed involuntarily as you were swooped into a tight hug. You had no idea that he was THAT strong. You were only an inch or two shorter than him, but that meant you definitely weren't light and he was all bones.

 

“I'M SO GLAD MY STUDY BUDDY IS OK!!! NYEH HEH HEH!” he cheered. Despite the fact that the worker who'd gotten the doors opened for you was giving your skeleton friend a distrustful glare, and that nothing really even happened inside the elevator, you felt yourself tear up and squeezed your initially-terrified grip around his neck.

  
“That... was kinda scary,” you finally admitted, mumbling softly. He finally set you down and you stumbled for a second on the unexpected landing. You rubbed the moisture out of your eyes as subtly as possible, then glanced up to give him a tremulous smile. “Thanks for the assist.”

  
He put one hand on his hipbone and wagged a bony finger at you “NEXT TIME USE THE STAIRS!!! FALLING INTO LAZY HABITS LIKE MY BROTHER CAN HARDLY LEAD TO ANY GOOD!”

  
You giggled at his line of reasoning that led to elevators being a bad thing and reassured him “Yeah, no, I did not enjoy that whatsoever.”

  
You could still feel yourself trembling and clasped your elbows behind your back. Papyrus's eyes followed the action and you got the impression that you might look as shaken as you felt.

  
“WHY DON'T I MAKE YOU MY FAVORITE SPAGHETTI? SURELY SUCH A FOOD CREATED BY SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME CAN MAKE UP FOR SUCH A DISASTROUS DAY!” Papyrus suggested.

  
“Papyrus it was only like 15 minutes-” you were interrupted by the workman, who'd been shockingly patient considering you were both standing in front of the still broken elevator.

  
“I don't really care where you kiddos go, but I need to start work now,” you found Papyrus and yourself ushered away down the stairs, and without any further debate, you both headed to his apartment to start studying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So at the college I go to, there are pretty well maintained elevators, and there's elevators that belong in a horror movie. I've taken a ride in an elevator that was completely dark (but kept going), and an elevator with a window so you can watch your life pass before your eyes... and graffiti inside the elevator shaft. I honestly don't even know how it got there. In any case, I had fun projecting my insecurities about elevators in this chapter. I've got a mental roulette of potentially awful things going, so we'll see what actually happens. I do mean that mature rating though, so keep an eye out for updated tags. Also, is there a way to format 1st line indents on this crazy website? I'm trying to make these chapters a little easier on the eyes :/


	3. The Universe Aligns Against Productivity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You review all of one concept before getting derailed. Also what the hell is Sans doing in his room all this time anyway?

“So lets start from the beginning, do you remember what an isomer is from last time we reviewed?” you asked Papyrus, leaning on a kitchen counter with your nose in your notes. Papyrus for his part, was setting up for his spaghetti, pulling ingredients from too tall shelves. It was the first time you'd ever seen a kitchen set up for someone at least your height or taller, and even you wouldn't be able to reach the top cabinets.

“THOSE ARE THE MOLECULES THAT ARE REALLY ALIKE, AREN'T THEY..? LIKE MIRROR IMAGES?”

“Not quite right, but you're on the right track. Same formula, different structure. So like all the sugars we're reviewing are going to look almost exactly the same. Luckily for both of us, we don't have to memorize that stuff, but I've got friends who did,” you thought aloud.

“IT CAN'T BE THAT BAD,” he said, putting the noodles in the pot before even the water. An internal alarm bell rang out usually reserved for your roommate.

“Check it out for yourself, I wrote them all down from the text before the teacher even said we wouldn't need to know their formulas,” you handed him the notes for him to squint at suspiciously while you removed the noodles and filled the pot with water.

You had just got the heat going when he finally looks up, looking perplexed enough that you could almost imagine that he got a light headache. “I DON'T GET IT. WHY MEMORIZE SOMETHING SO TEDIOUS?.. AND WHY ARE YOU CHOPPING THOSE TOMATOES SO CALMLY?”

You shrugged, then glanced at him oddly. “Why wouldn't I do this calmly?”

“YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ELIMINATE YOUR HEALTHY VEGETABLES PASSIONATELY!.. AS UNDYNE WOULD SAY. SHE'S AN EXCELLENT MENTOR QUITE LIKE YOU!!! AND YOU'RE THE GUEST, SO I'M SUPPOSED TO DO THE COOKING AROUND HERE!!!” he scolded, hands on his hips.

You giggled mischievously, “Whoops.”

You stepped aside to watch him pulverize the previously chopped tomatoes and slough the miserable vegetable matter into the sauce pan. You're not sure who Undyne was, but you got the impression she knows as much about cooking as Papyrus... fortunately you saved the noodles from imminent destruction, so you figured you were safe from the worst of it.

Well. That would be the case, but you hadn't quite realized who his other major culinary influence was just yet.

“Hey, what's that you're shaking into the sauce?” you frowned. Said sauce hadn't even heated up yet, but Papyrus was destroying vegetables and dumping them in and alarming speed. At one point he stopped to shake something that you previously believed to be Italian seasoning, but now the sauce was starting to glow as it was stirred and you got worried again.

“NYEH HEH HEH!!! IMPRESSED? THIS IS MY FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI'S TRUE POWER!!! MTT BRAND FOOD GRADE GLITTER BLEND!”

Secretly, you wondered if there was a way to save the sauce, but the glitter was pretty well stirred in. There were also bits and pieces of sequins that floated around for good measure. “I'm... gonna be honest. I don't even know how to respond to that.”

Despite the ambiguity of your answer, Papyrus nyeh-hee-hee-ed and grinned proudly. “I KNEW YOU WOULD BE SPEECHLESS!”

Unable to keep back a wry grin of your own, you dumped the noodles in the now-boiling pot and started digging around in drawers for a spoon. You frowned for a second, a little put off by the layout of the unfamiliar yet too-tall kitchen. “Hey, is silverware on a higher shelf?”

“YES, GO TO THE TOP LEFT OF THE SINK!”

You carefully climbed on the counter leaning forward on your knees and swung open the cabinet. A little white dog snoozed on top of the silverware, but upon your opening the cabinet it woke up and stared back at you. “Hey, is this your dog? How'd it get up here?” you asked, offering your hand to be sniffed at.

“DOG? WE DON'T HAVE ANY DOGS...” Papyrus turned towards you two suspiciously, as if you might've been teasing him. “HEY!! THAT'S THE ANNOYING DOG THAT KEEPS STEALING MY SPECIAL ATTACKS! THAT'S MY CUTLERY!! NOT YOURS!!!” he admonished, shaking the spoon he'd been stirring the sauce with. Glittery tomato sauce flew everywhere.

The Annoying Dog jumped into your arms happily and squirmed into the front of your jacket, becoming part of your inventory?! You giggled uncontrollably and tried to find Annoying Dog but, it was hard to tell with all the white fur and crazy wiggling. “H-hey that's tickling little guy, stop it!”

“AND THAT'S MY STUDY BUDDY!!! LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!”

You managed to retrieve the spoon you wanted and hop off the counter before you could accidentally slide off and hit something. Annoying Dog's head popped out from the neck of the jacket and panted happily. You gave the spaghetti noodles a quick stir to keep them from sticking before picking up the small dog and setting it down. “Sorry little guy, maybe another time?”

Annoying Dog was deployed!

Before either of you realized what was happening, it rocketed off through the house and back, galloping at top speed before somehow knocking the door under the sink open and for a second, all either of you could see was the cabinet door tapping back and forth. Then Annoying Dog burst forth with a giant femur, and darted out of the window of the kitchen.

“WHAT? NO?? WHY?!!” Papyrus lamented. “I THOUGHT I KEPT THAT WINDOW CLOSED?!AND THAT CABINET LOCKED?!!”

As if the situation wasn't cartoonish enough, a trombone started playing the musical equivalent of “Wah wahhh!” and you followed it out of the kitchen entrance to try and figure out where it was coming from.

“SANS!!!” Papyrus shrieked, with the well polished indignation that only a sibling could muster.

You managed to catch a look at the older brother, before he disappeared back into his room. Surprisingly he was much shorter than Papyrus, and wearing a faded blue hoodie, the gleeful expression on his broader skeletal face left no doubt that he kept his instrument for the sole purpose of annoying the younger brother. Looking around, you realized there was an odd trail everywhere in the living room, like some sort of grime? That definitely wasn't there before, and on a hunch, you checked the inside of your jacket. The Annoying Dog left doggie residue everywhere, including in your inventory. You shook your head, bemused, and decided not to question it too much.

You walked back into the kitchen to ask Papyrus, who had been stewing in his indignation, stirring the spaghetti sauce rapidly. “Are things always this crazy around here? Also, someone needs to bathe that dog.”

“NO, NOT ALWAYS, I SUSPECT THE ANNOYING DOG WANTED TO SAY HI ALTHOUGH I'M NOT SURE HOW IT KNEW YOU'D BE HERE,” with a well practiced tap of the spoon against the side of the saucepan, he put aside the stirring spoon and went to empty the water from the spaghetti pot. “I HOPE ALL THE CHAOS HAS MADE YOU EVEN HUNGRIER! FOR I AM SERVING YOUR PORTION FIRST AS A GREAT GESTURE BEFITTING OUR FRIENDSHIP!!!”

You accepted your plate as gracefully as you could given your doubts about the edibility of MTT brand food grade glitter blend, and leaned on the counter again. “I think we might as well give up on studying for today. The universe seems dead set against productivity at the moment.”

You took a bite of spaghetti, and cringed. 

“I-it might need some salt?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sans was actually supposed to have a longer cameo this chapter, but I honestly couldn't imagine him being too interested in the appearance of a study buddy. On another note, I picture the spaghetti sauce looking like the blood effects from "Lost Boys" where one of the vampires get killed and basically explode glittery goo all over everyone. Definitely not attractive in a marinara.


	4. Shower of Kisses Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You finally meet Papyrus's friends, get flirted with, and snack on the most amazing dessert ever. Also, you may or may not have a brilliant plot.

It wasn't long before you ended up meeting more monsters. It was really only a matter of time, but when your test grades came back as A's, Papyrus's friend Undyne got involved. Of course, in only the rowdiest way possible.

“We absolutely have to celebrate with spaghetti! You're becoming a MEGA-NERD!!!” Undyne shouted, “And uh, its great that you're doing well too ____.”

The humanoid fish woman smiled awkwardly. With a soft red fin bunched up into a ponytail like hair, an eye patch, and dark blue skin, she was by far the prettiest and most colorful person you'd ever seen, scales glimmering in the bright sun. For your part, you were just content in watching the two monsters interact, feeling a tad bashful and uncertain.

Fortunately, you didn't need to talk much, or sacrifice your kitchen to the name of “cooking”. You and the two monsters absconded to an entirely different place in Papyrus's bright red convertible. Upon seeing it, you looked at Papyrus meaningfully, both eyebrows raised.

“NYEH HEH HEE! I SEE YOU'RE IMPRESSED! I ALWAYS WANTED TO FEEL THE WIND IN MY HAIR IN MY VERY OWN COOL CAR!! SO THIS WAS THE FIRST THING I SAVED UP FOR!”

You nodded at his explanation. Fair enough. It would likely prove futile to mention that skeletons didn't have hair, so you hopped in the backseat and buckled up while Undyne claimed her place in the passenger seat.

“By the way, I dunno you've figured this out yet, but this is gonna be a WILD ride!” Undyne, warned you, a huge grin rising on her face.

The car roared to life, and with both monsters cackling maniacally, your velocity went from 0 to 45 MPH in a few seconds. You weren't quite sure Papyrus was going to make it without a cop catching the blatant disregard for traffic rules- or without suffocating on your own hair in your face.

“By the way, I hope you like anime 'cuz we're gonna MARATHON tonight! And you're not going home 'til we're finished!!!” Undyne hollered.

You managed to project over the wind and sounds of traffic, “WHICH ANIME?!”

“Its like this fighting thing with a wish granting dragon, and I think they have to save the world like 2 or 3 times?!” Undyne responded. You instantly felt yourself get excited, because you knew exactly what she was talking about.

“SICK!!!! I totally grew up on that one!!! It's been ages since I've seen it!” you cheered, allowing yourself to enjoy the adrenaline that started coursing through your system.

In less than 5 minutes, you had went from the college to a small house, with a golden flower garden, and a kid who'd clearly been waiting for someone to arrive. In a pink and blue striped shirt and stained white cargo pants, the kid leaped to their feet and started running only to be easily scooped up by Papyrus. They hugged and then the kid scrambled to his shoulder, hands waving excitedly. 

“I KNOW, BUT I AM VERY GREAT! IT'S ONLY NATURAL THAT I TAKE THE LEAD IN MY MAJOR!!!” Papyrus responded to him. “HOWEVER, I DID HAVE A LITTLE HELP, FROM MY CLASSMATE AND STUDY BUDDY ____! STUDY BUDDY, THIS IS OUR AMBASSADOR AND BESTEST FRIEND FRISK!”

You were working on spitting out your hair from your mouth but cocked your head in confusion at Frisk's signing. Frisk however, ended it with a clear “come here” motion. You walked up curiously, saying “Nice to meetcha Frisk-” when they waved “closer” again. Now truly curious, you leaned forward only to squeak and jump back in surprise when Frisk kissed your cheek, and then struck a flirtatious pose.

“ACK! I've been ambushed!” you laughed and rubbed your face, conscious of the threatening flush. “You're going to be a terror when you're older kiddo! How'd you guys end up meeting anyway?”

“Well, I mean you probably already know the whole story, but really Papyrus and I were on lookout for humans when Frisk showed up- I was the head of the Royal Guard, and Papyrus was in training,” Undyne started explaining, only to be interrupted by Papyrus.

“YES!!! I WAS TRAINING VERY HARD TO CAPTURE A HUMAN, AS MY OLD DREAM WAS TO BE A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD! I WAS GOING TO BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING! PEOPLE WOULD ASK TO BE MY FRIEND!.. AND THEN THE ROYAL GUARD WASN'T NEEDED ANYMORE,” Papyrus lamented, “SO THAT'S WHEN I DECIDED TO BECOME A ROYAL FAMOUS CHEF INSTEAD! WITH UNDYNE'S ENCOURAGEMENT OF COURSE, AND YOUR TUTORING AS WELL!”

“R-right, and Sans was on lookout as well, but to be honest he kinda sucked at his job,” Undyne continued the story, explaining different aspects of Frisk's journey, as Frisk nodded along and signed their input in the right places.

As you were listening along, you tried to picture how one would actually shower in kisses. You couldn't quite picture the “chick magnet” thing that Papyrus was going for. By pure associational thought process, you instead started picturing the skeleton being pelted by the the chocolate brand Kisses. You suddenly remembered that Valentine's day was in about a week and covered your mouth quickly to hide the wide grin.

This did not go unnoticed by Undyne. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” you said a little too quickly.

“Like hell its nothing!” She shot in response, “TELL ME!!!”

“Noooope,” you stretched out your response, no longer hiding your Cheshire smile.

“YEEESSS!” she yelled, effectively catching Papyrus's attention too. You scrambled for something that would diffuse the situation before she forced you to spill out the wonderful thought.

“Nooooo,” you whined, and then it hit you. You could feel your grin stretch out a little farther, and stared at her challengingly, “Its something only BESTIES with my number get to hear.”

“NO WAY! If it's that secret, then I TOTALLY need in on it! If I can be besties with Frisk, then I sure as hell can be besties with you! GIVE MY YOUR NUMBER!!!” she snatched your phone from your jacket pocket while you cringed back, giggling helplessly at the success of your own manipulation.

“WAIT, I HAVE YOUR NUMBER!!! DO I GET TO HEAR THE JOKE TOO?” Papyrus asked, thankfully just as clueless as Undyne is about what you were thinking about. To your surprise though, Frisk clung onto Undyne's arm and desperately signed with one hand.

“PUNK, I'M ADDING FRISK'S NUMBER TO YOUR PHONE TOO,” Undyne shouted.

“That's fine,” you responded and then told Papyrus “Of course!”

Naturally, you weren't going to breathe a word of it. You've got time until later to think of something mildly clever. You got your phone back intact, and loaded with new numbers, with one more than expected. “Um, will “Alphys” be expecting a text from me too?”

“You mentioned you liked anime, so I figured she'd want to catch up with you ASAP!” Undyne flashed a toothy grin your way. “If the way you talked about that last one is anything to judge by, I might even have to pry her away from texting you just to go out and eat by next week! Actually, since its V-day, I was possibly counting on it? So I can surprise her?!!”

“BY THE WAY, WHERE IS ALPHYS?” Papyrus said, eyes narrowed, “ISN'T THIS NORMALLY HER THING?”

Undyne shrugged, “She's been working on some new modification with Mettaton, but honestly this anime isn't quite her thing. Not to say she hasn't watched it!!! But she definitely prefers watching Mew Mew Kissy Cutie.”

You shrugged, “I'll see what I can do? Maybe I'll dig out some of my manga collection for her to borrow.”

“YES!!! DISTRACT HER! But maybe save the manga for another time, I want to be ABLE to drag her away, y'know?!!” she narrowed her eyes, but looking rather pleased nonetheless. “AND YOU BETTER BE SERIOUS ABOUT TELLING ME THAT SECRET!!!”

Frisk having migrated from Undyne's bicep to sitting piggyback on her shoulders, nodded along seriously. You waved your hands at them defensively, “I WILL I promise.”

You were all finally interrupted by a delicious smell wafting from the house, when a giant goat lady opened the door to the house “Children, are we going to reminisce all day, or are we going to celebrate Papyrus's good grades?”

You're instantly overcome with the impulse to call her “Mom”, even with your own mother back home. She was much taller than all of you, although maybe only a couple of inches taller than Papyrus. Her presence was warm and comforting, and you didn't hesitate to hold her hand when she offered her home to you, with the other three rushing ahead of you. “Hello young one, my name is Toriel. I've heard that you share a class with Papyrus and aid in his studies.”

You hummed in affirmative, breathing deeply. “That smells really good Toriel, what is it?”

She smiled gently at your question, “It's my specialty, Cinnamon-Butterscotch pie. I thought it would be a special treat for your and Papyrus's success? I hope you like those flavors.”

You nodded, “Cinnamon's my favorite spice, but out of all the old fashioned candies I always grabbed butterscotch.”

Toriel looked pleased. “Then, I think you may enjoy this.”

“HEY ARE YOU GOING TO BOONDOGGLE ALL DAY?!” Papyrus complained. 

“YEAH PUNK WE CAN'T START WITHOUT YOU!!! WE'RE CELEBRATING YOUR GRADE TOO!!!” Undyne yelled.

You let go of Toriel's hand and hurried into the living room guiltily. As promised, the cinnamon butterscotch pie was delicious. The anime marathon got derailed about halfway during the night when,

“WAIT!!! WE FORGOT TO MAKE SPAGHETTI!!! NGAHHHH! UNACCEPTABLE!!! PAPYRUS, FRISK, BATTLE FORMATION, GO!!!” Undyne roared passionately. Although the kitchen was immediately threatened by the grand triumvirate of Frisk's, Undyne's and Papyrus's wild simulation of cooking, Toriel simply winked in your direction, and called for pizza.

“I'll clean with magic later.”

You were half asleep when Papyrus dropped you off at your apartment, Undyne being dropped off first and you waved tiredly, somehow grinning ear to ear despite your facial muscles hurting. Getting into PJ's and climbing into bed, you immediately texted Undyne.

-just to clarify youre most definitely besties with Papyrus right? did he always go on about that showering in kisses thing?

While waiting for a response you texted Papyrus, but sent him a picture of a dog.

-so I was thinking of getting a dog. and naming it PUP-yrus. ;)

More accustomed to getting texts from you, he managed to respond first. 

-I'LL ALLOW IT!

-WAIT THAT WAS A PUN!!! ON MY NAME?!

-TREASON!!! D: D: D: PERFIDY!!!

-I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND!!!

-DON'T EVER TELL SANS THAT PUN

-I WILL LITERALLY NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT XP XP XP

Giggling at the flood of outraged texts, you nearly missed the one that Undyne sent, nearly as indignant:

-OF COURSE WE'RE BESTIES!!! WHAT SECRET COULD YOU POSSIBLY KNOW ABOUT HIM THAT I DON'T?!!

Ohhh boy. You quickly sent a mollifying text to explain what you were thinking about earlier. Then you asked her,

-do you think we could get a bunch of people in on this? like, everyone he knows. i neeeed to see this happen

-like, i'll be happy if its even just his brother in on this

Undyne's response made you feel even better about your idea;

-no way. 

-we aren't just getting sans on a plot this big we're getting EVERYONE. 

-and no ones gonna stop this, not even you!!

-wait, didn't you promise to tell papyrus about this too?

You snorted happily, giddy about this somewhat unexpected support.

-i told him a bad pun

-i got this crazy storm of angry emojis

-it was great

After a moment, your text conversation with Undyne switched into a group invite, that led to an app preinstalled on your phone setting.

-ReaderMeta joined chat-

-Pacifrisk joined chat-

-Bonetobebad joined chat-

-Cinna-b-scotch pi joined chat-

-Legs4Days joined chat-

-StrongFish joined chat-

-KingDad joined chat-

-Anime4lyfe joined chat-

Pacifrisk:?

ReaderMeta: hiya Frisk, remember me from earlier?

StrongFish: LISTEN UP EVERYBODY WHAT WE TALK ABOUT HERE CAN'T GET TO PAPYRUS, GOT THAT?!

Pacifrisk: -determination intensifies-

Legs4Days:Ohhh darlings, I'm listening! ;)

Bonetobebad: *don't worry, we won't tell anyBODY

Cinna-B-scotch pi: LOL oh sans!

KingDad: please dont ;-;

-StrongFish posted a picture with a Temmie 'hanging in there'-

Anime4lyfe: h-hey lets stay focused! o_o' what are we keeping from papyrus? ^.^

ReaderMeta: Well, I was thinking...

You managed to message everyone what you wanted to do, with Undyne's help and get things set up for next week. Proud of yourself, you even got a hold of the skelebro's address, and made a note to send a little something extra. You stayed up a little too late, but with the activity going on in the chat, you hardly noticed the time lapse until Toriel sent Frisk to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So most of this was already written, but I had to fill in a few in-between parts to keep the flow of the story. Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending on your perspective) this resulted in a much longer chapter than normal. I hope you guys are willing to hang on for the next part, and as for the Sans fans, I've got a oneshot on its way. I've got the general story mapped out, so after we work through my obligatory fluff, things are probably going to get intense, or so I'd like to think. Input is welcome of course!


	5. Shower of Kisses Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Operation Kisses commence!

For Papyrus, Valentine's day started out with a prank from Sans. The second he opened his door, he was pelted with light blue wrapped conical pieces of cookies and cream flavored chocolate spilling out from a bucket literally titled “Shower”. He didn't really get it, but when he was conked on the head by a can of olives with “O-live U” scrawled on the label, he rolled his eye sockets and collected the little pieces of chocolate scattered all over the place.

Unsurprisingly, Sans was not up, so he placed a lovingly wrapped joke book at his lazy brother's door and nyeh-heh-ed quietly to himself. Obviously, his brother was the luckiest to have a cool guy like him thinking of him. 

As per his self-proclaimed duty to the ambassador, he escorted Frisk to school in the morning before his classes starts. Alas, he wasn't allowed to drive them to school in his cool convertible, but Frisk only lived a couple of blocks from school. This school was also where Toriel worked, so she was escorted too.

“FRISK!!! I COME BEARING PLATONIC VALENTINE'S PRESENTS.” Papyrus declared. “AND I MEAN IT! KEEP YOUR FLIRTING TO A MINIMUM!!!” 

Unexpectedly not only did Frisk hand him an entire craft paper bag with red hearts and yellow flowers drawn all over, filled to the brim with red cherry cordial “Kisses” and confetti, but Toriel had handed him a packed lunch for his own school day. The bulky lunch bag came complete with a snail sandwich, an apple, 2 pieces of cinnamon butterscotch pie, one with Sans neatly written on the note, and another purple and white craft bag filled with caramel “Kisses”. Nonplussed, Papyrus handed them the specially made “Friendship Spaghetti” coupons, (redeemable at any time and anywhere) and wrapped bones.

“WOWIE!!! I DIDN'T REALIZE THIS SORT OF CANDY WAS THE GIFT OF THE YEAR!” Papyrus remarked. 

Frisk signed “Shower,” and giggled happily. They skipped ahead leaving Papyrus to stare suspiciously in their wake. Toriel patted his shoulder.

“You should head to school soon, education waits for nobody!” she said, before moving ahead. He nodded along, until he realized what exactly she said.

“STOP HANGING AROUND MY BROTHER SO MUCH!!! YOU HUGE DORK!!” he yelled. Toriel laughed.

“I hope I didn't get your goat!”

“ARGHHH! THAT'S EVEN WORSE!!!”

~

Papyrus felt even more woefully under-prepared, when you surprised him in class. You thought that you'd get there before him, but instead found him walking in right before you, giving you the opportunity to drop a bag of multicolored conversation “Kisses” on his head. He turned around quickly just to see you in a sweater dress for the first time. It was still cold, so you still had a pullover hoodie and leggings on, but it was definitely the first time you'd dressed in such a manner during the semester.

“WH-WHAT IS WITH CHOCOLATE KISSES TODAY?! HOW DID I MISS THIS FAD?!!” Papyrus stuttered. 

You brushed a hand over your mouth in an effort to hide your grin, though unsuccessfully. You noted,“You kinda look like you've been trick or treating, but with lots of pink.”

“Y-YES WELL, YOU LOOK GIRLY! FOR ONCE!” Papyrus said with an exaggerated cough.

You shrugged. “I got work off, so I don't have to worry about ruining my clothes. Hey, open one of those chocolates will you? I wanna see if they say anything new this year.”

“WAIT, I HAVE SOMETHING FOR YOU TOO!”

To Papyrus's own relief, he had taken steps to give you a large box of conversation hearts with your own special set of “Friendship Spaghetti” coupons and a wrapped bone that you glanced at oddly. You didn't think that he'd want you giving it to your dogs back home, so you resolved to simply stuff it in a drawer until further notice. The conversation candy hearts you'd taken happily though and ate them during the course of class, occasionally humming as you sketched candy and carbohydrate formulas all over your tablet.

Papyrus still felt oddly unsatisfied. He hadn't noticed at first, but all of class, you had a stuffed animal peaking out from your pullover hoodie. At the end of class, he finally summoned the nerve to ask “WHO GAVE YOU THAT?”

“Oh, my best friend from back home sent me this with my parent's Valentine's present, so I thought I'd take the little guy with me. A day like this, I thought it'd be fun to do something kinda childish and silly like that,” you explained. His question made you realize that you'd yet to introduce your two friends, and mentally you vowed to rectify that soon. She'd like him.

Your conversation was soon interrupted by a classmate that shared lab period with you, “Hey ____. I just wanted to ask real quick, are you free later on today?”

“Hm? What do you mean?” you blinked at them.

The classmate's reaction was to flush hard, “Uh well, if you don't really want to, then that's cool too. I'll see you in lab.”

You cocked your head at their hasty retreat, genuinely confused. “What even just happened?”

“I...” Papyrus was incredulous. “...ARE YOU SERIOUS?”

You shrugged again and smiled, “Maybe they wanted to study with us? Our grades in class are pretty sick right now.”

If it wasn't for how you quick you were to shrug it off, he would've pointed out the obvious. As it was though, something about the incident had him concerned. He wasn't sure if it had to do with your obvious lack of attention to the situation, or the attention that you were receiving from others to begin with.

You both had to separate to go to different classes, but Undyne and Alphys made a surprise visit before his own class started.

“HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!” She pelted him with candy, Papyrus barely having time to duck underneath the desk.

“NYEE! DON'T THROW THINGS AT THE SKELETON!!” he shouted. Most of the candy exploded on impact, filling the air with the smell of mint. What didn't self-destruct, he saw were also “Kisses”. “WHY IS EVERYONE GIVING ME KISSES?! WHAT IS THIS?!!”

“S-sorry we were waiting for like a week to d-do this,” Alphys explained, holding out an intact bag of mint Kisses and a bag of golden almond Kisses.

“YEAH NERD!!! We've come to shower you with the full passion of our friendship!!! So you better have something for us too!” Undyne said, digging deep in her bag and finding she finally ran out of ammo. Papyrus scooched out from under the desk.

“ONLY IF YOUR FRIENDSHIP EXCLUDES MORE CHOCOLATE RAIN.” Papyrus responded warily, “ALSO IT'D BE NICE NOT TO GET NOOGIED.”

“NGAHHH! Fine spoilsport, we'll compromise!” Instead, Undyne ended up suplexing him in the middle of the classroom. He handed them their coupons and wrapped bones, holding his cranium with mild pain.

Before they left though, Alphys nudged him and whispered out of earshot “If you think about it long enough, you'll figure out who planned this, m-maybe you should thank them sometime?A-also, I almost forgot! Mettaton was a bit busy, b-but he didn't want to be left out! Here!” And she shoved a bag of purple dark chocolate Kisses into the pile of chocolate in his arms.

Papyrus for one, had no idea what she was talking about. What he had finally grasped though was the theme, as he counted through the many bags of Kisses he'd gotten through the day. Someone had taken his one of his daydreams about the Royal Guard and turned it completely on its head, involving his brother, his best friends, even his study buddy in literally showering him with delicious sweets so named Kisses in a way that could be interpreted in a way that was perhaps...

...non-platonic?

Even in the last part of his day, as Papyrus did his duty in escorting the human ambassador to the ex-king's home on the other side of the school, his Majesty had handed him a bag of classic milk chocolate kisses and a mini bonzai tree that was trimmed in the approximate shape of his face. 

“WOWIE! EVEN THE KING IS INVOLVED IN THIS MYSTERIOUS SHOWER OF KISSES! HM, THAT ACTUALLY SOUNDS PRETTY WEIRD...” he mumbled.

Asgore patted his shoulder sympathetically, “As long as Alphys did not hear you, I am sure we'll be fine.

Glowing with the attention on the way home, he nearly missed the sign that his mailbox had received mail that day. There was even a medium-large box from Amazin'! Papyrus took a moment to dump all 7 bags of chocolate Kisses on the kitchen table before dashing back out to check his mail. Inside, he'd gotten one last GIANT “Kiss”, and a bouquet of “Kiss” constructed roses with a card signed by all the co-conspirators. Hauling the loot from his normally empty mailbox inside, he finally got the chance to slice open the box from Amazin'! Services. A stuffed white dog peered up from inside, with a silly grin and a tongue lolling out the side and an anonymous note,

“I thought you needed a PUPyrus! Happy Valentine's day again!”

It wasn't signed, and Amazin! Services didn't provide an address that he could look up, but regardless, he thought he might be able to guess who sent it to him.

“...I'M BURNING THIS NOTE, ____.”

Providing a collar and ID that christened “ANNOYING DOG”, Papyrus set it on the same table as Sans pet rock. Upon further thought, he also added a dog food dish and a water bowl.

~

During a midnight kitchen raid, Sans stopped in his tracks to regard the new addition to their household thoughtfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys have no idea how giggly and silly I felt when I got the idea. I literally looked up what colors of Kisses corresponded to what flavors and everything, so now have Kiss ads all over my internet :P On the plus side, we've got some mild progress. And by progress, I mean Sans is mildly suspicious and you and Papyrus are still cheerfully in your own worlds. XD


	6. Good Kitty..?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon meeting you in person, you've successfully convinced Mettaton that he needs a pet human. Good going?

“Days like this are really really-” you yawned, sleeping very little the night before between studying and exchanging late night texts with Papyrus and Alphys, the latter you've yet to meet in person. “- long. I've got classes, then work, and then one more class.” You leaned forward on the desk, one arm crossed to support your head.

Papyrus turned a narrowed gaze, and you mentally sweated out his next response. “HOW LATE DO YOU GO TO CLASS? AND WHY DO YOU LOOK SO TIRED?”

You did your best to look less tired, with a smile and a laugh “I dunno how you do it, but most people are required to sleep! My class ends about 7:30 PM, so I end up getting to my apartment at 8.”

That time was mostly right, but if class was slow to let out, you could miss the bus and have been known by your roommates to be out as late as 8:30. Add dinner, a shower, and studying... well.

Papyrus looked like he mostly accepted your explanation, but he asked one more question “WHICH CLASS DO YOU GO TO LAST?”

“Oh, its just World Literature. I usually sit in the back just in case I fall asleep behind my laptop and notes. I do well anyway, and my professor seems to like me so its not a problem,” you explained, worried that he'd scold you loudly for sleeping through one of your classes.

“ALL RIGHT,” Papyrus accepted your answer for a second, and then narrowed his eyes again, “BUT YOU BETTER NOT BE LYING ABOUT DOING WELL!!”

Your teacher cleared her throat and with growing embarrassment you both realized that you were caught up in a conversation even as Dr. Levan was trying to start class. In a hurry to appear attentive, you scrambled to pull out a notebook and Papyrus dropped in a seat next to you, both of you saying-  
“SORRY MA'AM!”

The rest of the day passed grudgingly, leaving you to nap in your last class as you'd forewarned earlier. You'd only woken up when your teacher touched your shoulder, you sitting up ramrod straight in sudden awareness. “How long was I out?!”

“Relax honey, class just ended. Next time, I would recommend just going home and getting to bed early,” your teacher, Dr. Carter, warned. “You're not getting anything from my lecture this way.”

Well, except for a recording from your closed laptop, but there was no way you were going to say anything in case he wouldn't allow you to keep it. You mumbled an apology to a teacher for the second time during the day, and packed your things, trudging behind the teacher in a sleepy stupor.

You almost didn't notice anything until the teacher's sharp tone jolted you awake, “What is something like you doing here?!”

Papyrus had been sitting on the stairs, waiting with absolutely nothing to do but reviewing flashcards that you'd given him... and your headphones? You quickly descended the steps to stand next to him, nervously positioning yourself between him and your teacher. “Hey, were you waiting for me?”

“OF COURSE. WE'RE FRIENDS RIGHT? IF YOU'RE TIRED ENOUGH TO LEAVE THIS IN CLASS EARLIER, THEN THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THE BEST OF FRIENDS, WOULDN'T LET YOU GO HOME IN THE DARK! IT'S FOOLHARDY!” Papyrus spared the teacher's hostile stare only a moment of consideration before taking your headphones off his shoulders and setting it around your neck, offbrand MP3 player attached and all. He scolded, “YOU HAD BEEN SLEEPING IN CLASS?!! YOU'VE GOT THE PATTERN OF YOUR NOTEBOOK ON YOUR CHEEK!”

Caught again, you reflected ruefully. “Well, I guess it's too late to stop you now. If I'd known telling you what class I had later meant keeping you from going home, I definitely wouldn't have said a thing,” you stared sternly. Papyrus stared back, undaunted, and for a few seconds you two were just like that. You could feel yourself softening up, ready to call it quits when your teacher brushed past you both, clearly disgruntled. That broke the staring contest, enough to remind you that you still needed to get home, eat, and sleep.

“Right, I ought to get going,” you sighed, running your hand over face, suddenly feeling the lines that Papyrus talked about earlier. It felt nice to soothe out the itching feeling, and you stood like that for a second, distracted.

“YOU MEAN WE. YOU LOOK EVEN WORSE THAN YOU DID THIS AFTERNOON!” Papyrus grabbed your arm and wound it around his, you lunging forward to try and keep up with his sudden movements and nearly falling off balance with your backpack swinging with you. “ACTUALLY, I WAS HOPING THAT YOU WOULD, SLEEP-OVER-TONIGHT-SO-THAT-I-CAN-ENSURE-YOUR-SLEEP?”

It sounded like he wanted to come off assertive as normal, but the last part was said so quickly you cocked your head to the side in momentary confusion. After your tired mind caught up with the string of syllables and separated them properly, you considered what he was asking. You weren't entirely certain, mostly on the basis that you wouldn't have the right books for classes the day after, but upon thinking it over, you had your laptop which was all you usually needed anyway. “Well... that's fine I guess...” your words trailing off into another yawn.

“EXCELLENT!!!” he wasted no time pulling you along and a windy car ride later, you found yourself stumbling along into his apartment only to be ambushed by Undyne.

“HOLY- Undyne what are you even?!” you yelped, suddenly being pulled into a headlock and noogied.

“SURPRISE SLEEPOVER PARTY, YA PUNK!!! We're all here to make sure you don't kill yourself with responsibility!!! Also, meet my girlfriend, Alphys!”

“H-hello! ____! I m-managed to get away from work! Well, mostly..?” Alphys waved from the couch nervously right before glancing to the giant wheeling calculator who'd come to greet you via head pat, the only thing he could actually reach at the moment.

“Helloooo darling! I'm Mettaton, but I'm SURE you didn't need an introduction~!”

Normally, you would, but one cannot spend time around Papyrus and get away ignorant of the insanity that is MTT brand. Specifically, MTT brand food grade glitter. As Mettaton wheeled away to do unknown calculator things, you noticed that the stuffed animal you had gotten Papyrus had been placed with it's own food dish and collar. You smiled, this time without feeling your exhaustion quite so keenly, and you barely even flinched when Undyne dropped you.

“By the way, I was actually hoping to get you to join us in a giant video game thing. I do Booptube videos on my spare time so I thought I'd shake it up with fresh blood?” Undyne asked, rescuing you from the floor that she deposited you on. “Not actual blood though, I mean Paps doesn't even have blood.”

“Well, there's marrow, probably? Like, that's inside human bones, so...” your voice trailed off when you realized you could vaguely hear music playing from your headphones.

“Hey that's true HEY SANS DO YOU AND PAP HAVE MARROW?!”

“what a marrowing question to ask,” Sans answered from the couch. He shrugged lazily, “maybe i'll say tomarrow.”

“SANS!!! ITS TOO LATE IN THE DAY FOR YOUR PUNS!!! HOW IS ____ SUPPOSED TO SLEEP THROUGH THAT?!”

Sans's grin didn't ever seem to abate, and it actually looked fixed in place. It was the first time you'd seen him since trying Papyrus's friendship spaghetti, and you made your way over to the couch to make your first official introduction to him and Alphys. Secretly, you were trying to figure out if Sans had Papyrus's full range of motion.

“Heya,” you made a broad greeting motion before settling on the couch, legs folded underneath you. “I'm ____. Its good to meet you in person.”

“S-so do you know how to play?” Alphys inquired shyly. “We were thinking of taking turns with a 4 player party mode on 15 turns each before going to sleep.”

You nodded, “Oh yeah, I can play most games probably even in my sleep. In fact if I fall asleep, just hand me a controller. We oughta test that theory to see if I can actually do it.”

Alphys laughed along, “S-sure. We should give Sans a controller too, he falls asleep during these things all the time. Speaking of-”

Sans already fell asleep, snoring softly. The huge grin didn't relax from his face though, and you mentally added one point in favor toward the theory that he didn't have much facial control.

“Sleeping Olympics,” you nodded. “I can dig it.”

“HEY ALPHYS, do me a favor and set up the recording stuff, PAP go get Sans out of here if he's gonna just sleep on the couch, YOU I see falling asleep on the couch, go make popcorn! And make a LOT!!!METTATON- I don't care what you do. I'm gonna set up the game!” Undyne ordered everyone into their respective roles, and you wearily pulled yourself up to go get popcorn done. In the relative quiet of the kitchen and the humming microwave, you noticed your headphones playing again.

Listening to the music playing, you hummed along and slid across the kitchen floor waiting for the popcorn to get through the microwave cycle. You kicked off your shoes, and stored them underneath the table. In your socks, the kitchen floor was perilously slippery, but you've been doing this since you were a kid so you slid in circles, waving your arms along with the song.

~Nyah, nyah nyah nyah~ Sing and dance, amore mio, wag your tail~

Feeling the drama of the song and doing your best to be graceful as you circled and spun across the floor you increased your daring and attempted a pirouette. You landed back on one foot mid-pirouette, and growing determined you had tried again, spinning at a higher speed until...

“Hey darling is that popcorn done just yet-”

You yelped to high heavens and still in mid-spin you lost your control and slid down with your knees parallel to the floor, and then bounced from your knees onto your butt, looking stunned and flustered.

Mettaton clapped both his hands over his face laughing and emitting awing sounds in the same breath, “ALPHYS YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST COME GET THE RECORDING FROM MY VISION AND WATCH WHAT JUST HAPPENED!! OHMYGOODNESS CAN WE ADOPT HER?!”

Naturally attracting Undyne's and Papyrus's attention as well, everyone came into the kitchen to investigate what was going on. 

“Why do you even have recording vision?!” you yelled indignantly, mortified that more people were going to see. 

“Alphys reasons,” Mettaton responded, staying still for Alphys to tinker with it. “If she can install useful upgrades, then she will!”

Your face had grown red hot, and as Alphys managed to retrieve the video and watch you fall like a dizzy top again, you buried your face as far as you could into your t-shirt, your blush traveling all the way to the roots of your hair. Papyrus for his part, attempted to retrieve your face from your shirt only to say,

“HEY, IT'S OKAY!!! EVEN IF YOU'RE KINDA BAD AT DANCING, THAT PART OF YOU IS CUTE TOO!!”

Just like the ending to that song. That song which he might have actually been listening to at some point because holy crap, he had actually handed your MP3 to you still on from earlier, and you could not for the life of you figure out if he said that to rib you or if he was being his regular sweet yet oddly direct self. He only managed to pull you from your shirt, when the last part of self control you had from hiding snapped and you grabbed his scarf and pushed your burning face under it instead, emitting a high pained squeaking sound.

Undyne was bent over with laughter, “PAPYRUS!!! That doesn't help!!”

“AH!!! HUMAN IF YOU'RE GOING TO ABSCOND WITH MY SCARF, UNCAPTURE ME FIRST!!!” Papyrus shouted, genuinely alarmed at the indication that your mind might possibly have broke from embarrassment and exhaustion. Both of you missed the looks your friends were giving each other.

Mettaton just looked overly delighted, “Alphys PLEASE can we keep her?!”

Alphys muttered to Mettaton, “You b-better have caught that. Tell me that recorded.”

“I was looking,” Mettaton huffed “SO YES DARLING I CAUGHT THAT ON FILM.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd actually entitled this "Youtube Sleepover" but I thought it'd give away the whole chapter. That, and I called it "Booptube" in the story. No I do not watch excessive amounts of RWBY thank you. Just enough... just enough. For those of you who care, the song is called "Cat's Dance" and Marasy plays piano or you can just listen to the vocaloids sing it. Of course, the song brings up all sorts of questions. Like how much of your MP3 did Papyrus listen to anyway..?
> 
> Also, Mettaton just really likes the IDEA of a pet human. Alphys would end up being the one taking care of them, I'm almost certain.


	7. Midnight Babbles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You fall off the couch and accidentally wake Papyrus up. So naturally you both rectify the problem by chatting each other ears (earholes?) off.
> 
> For midnight babblers, by midnight babblers, of midnight babbles.

Popcorn long finished, 2 or 3 different rounds of party mode brawl style finished and recorded, everyone had long passed out including you. So it came as a shock when you'd accidentally rolled off your corner of the couch with your controller still in hand and thudded mostly onto the floor and partially across Papyrus's spine.

“Hnn??” Too sleepy and confused to be embarrassed about nearly squishing your skeleton friend, you looked at the controller you somehow still held and then dropped it next to you both. Well, it looks like Alphys took your suggestion to heart. You wondered briefly if you managed to play through the rest of your turns. Papyrus was even slower to wake, and for a moment it almost looked like he'd slept through your landing.

“____..? WUZ GOIN' ON..?” Papyrus mumbled. You blearily looked around for a moment, and spotted the culprit.

“I think I got booted off the couch by space hog Mettaton,” you snorted. Somehow, the robot had stretched across the entirety of the couch. You didn't know how he fit himself on the couch with you on it to begin with, since you could've sworn you fell asleep next to Alphys and Papyrus, but there he was. Unintentionally knocking you off the couch while you both slept.

Papyrus groaned. “SO I FAILED IN ENSURING YOU'RE WELL RESTED...”

You awkwardly pat what you could see as his arm, and then pulled yourself upright, “ S'not your fault. How are you even sleeping on the ground without a sleeping bag anyway?”

“UNDYNE AND I MADE A SUPER COOL PILLOW-FORT-CASTLE! EVEN THE FLOOR IS COVERED WITH PILLOWS!” Papyrus explained proudly. You suddenly realize that despite your uncomfortable position from before, your falling off the couch did not actually hurt. Was that what they had to do to get to sleep? Undyne and Papyrus always seemed hyperactive, and you never seen them standing still when the other was in the same room.

“Huh. I really need to get night vision,” you pondered. You felt yourself falling asleep sitting upright until Papyrus stood up and offered his hand. “Hm?”

“LET'S GO TO MY ROOM! I BET YOU'D SLEEP BETTER IN AN ACTUAL BED,” Papyrus explained. “I'LL LET YOU BORROW MY COOL RACECAR BED FOR THE NIGHT 'CUZ I'M JUST A COOL FRIEND THAT WAY.”

You nodded amiably, agreeing, “The coolest.” Allowing yourself to be pulled to your feet, you followed clumsily in the darkness of the room and realized that essentially the whole living room had been transformed into a pillow fort. Undyne and Alphys had fallen asleep in a pillow-fort cocoon in front of the television.

You leaned on Papyrus lazily, oblivious to the fact that you were still holding his hand. He gives you a sidelong glance, and then fights a sudden flush. “I-I'LL BET YOU'RE REALLY NERVOUS! YOU'RE EVEN LEANING ON ME FOR SUPPORT? W-WELL I ASSURE YOU, YOU CAN INTERACT WITH ANYTHING IN MY ROOM! NO MATTER HOW COOL I AM, I DON'T LIVE IN A MUSEUM!” his words stumbled, even lowered to a mumble “YOU'RE SO N-NERVOUS, YOU'RE HOLDING MY HAND...”

Half asleep, you barely registered the last words. “Hnnn?” you stood straight upward again, “Sorry, m'tired.”

Of course, that hadn't really solved the problem of your hand in his, but by then he found the door to his room and flicked on the light. You cringed from the sudden stimulus, and blinking rapidly you finally let go of his hand, and walked into his room. It was interesting, and maybe a little funny to see a Jolly Roger flag on his wall and action figures arranged all over a table.

“WANT TO HEAR SOMETHING KINDA FUNNY?” Papyrus said, watching you examine the flag, and touch the worn fabric absentmindedly before checking his bookshelf.

“Sure. Funny's good,” you responded, reading a couple of the titles. You had an idea he liked puzzles from previous conversations, but you didn't actually know that he read about them.

“I USED TO THINK THAT HUMANS WERE DESCENDED FROM SKELETONS. AS IT TURNS OUT, HUMANS HAVE SKELETONS INSIDE THEM? THAT'S WHAT FRISK TELLS ME,” he said. You finally settled down by sinking to the ground at the foot of his race car bed. It was actually pretty cool. You halfway wished you had one. Papyrus ran over to you sternly, “HEY!! I SAID YOU CAN BORROW MY BED! NOT MY FLOOR!”

“Kiddo's right, even I've got a skeleton underneath all this flesh and organ stuff!” You poked at your tummy, giggling when Papyrus bodily picks you up and drops you on the bed. He huffs at you. You just grin goofily and roll onto your back, arms splayed outward. “What I just can't figure out is how YOU get around without a muscular system. Then again, you guys have magic right?”

“YEAH. WAIT... HEY! I HAVE MUSCLES!! I'LL SHOW YOU!!!” Papyrus ran into his closet, and you suspected you affronted the poor guy with your statement. He pulled out some costume biceps and pulled them onto his arms to flex proudly eliciting more giggles from you. “WHAT?! DON'T LAUGH.” 

Papyrus sat next to you with a sulk, and you rolled upright to lean on him again. “Sorry Puppy, but in all honesty you really don't NEED muscles to be cool and strong. Plus those are just the glamour muscles, they're hardly more important than all the muscles you can't see.”

“PUPPY?” Papyrus asked suspiciously. Well, oops. You hadn't quite realized that you used the nickname you gave him after the Pupyrus joke, out loud. 

“Well, I kinda like it better than changing the Puh sound to a Pah sound just so I can call you something like Pappy, or Pap, or Papster, or something like that,” you rubbed across your nose, somewhat embarrassed at the slip.

“BUT I'M NOT A PUPYRUS. IF YOU'RE GOING TO CALL ME PUPPY, THEN I'M GOING TO CALL YOU KITTY!” Papyrus retaliated.

You slammed your hands on the bed in revelation, “What?! I KNEW IT! You were totally teasing me about that song! Nooooo! You meanie!?”

With both of you sitting there sulking at each other, the situation had totally derailed and gotten ridiculous. Much to your surprise, Papyrus was the first to put an end to it when he said, “WELL... I DON'T REALLY KNOW MUCH ABOUT MUSCLES, EVEN AS COOL AS I AM...”

It'd been a few years since anatomy and physiology, and you had more trouble learning muscle groups than any other topic, but you sat up to enter your “tutor” mode. “Well, like there's a ton of different muscle groups around the neck to hold my head up. The skull and brains are surprisingly heavy stuff, so like there's this one right here-”

You pointed to the muscle that helped form the hollow of your neck from your back, and then twisted your neck to make the muscles across your throat stand jut out slightly, “And these too, that's the sternocleido-something. It's been a long a time, I barely remember the true names,” You confessed. “And there's a lot of muscle groups I'm not even sure I can show you very easily.”

“DO YOU REMEMBER THE NAMES OF ALL THE BONES?” Papyrus asked. Despite being half asleep, you nodded.

“Most of them. Its way easier to remember that stuff, the bones don't overlap the same places like the muscles. I think there's like four different muscle groups that layer across the stomach. Those same bones in a person look really odd on you though, Papyrus. Especially across your face,” you tapped gently across his jaw. “In a person, this would be fixed in place, only to be moved by the masseter – I think- but your mandible is forever forming new expressions I don't expect.”

“MAGIC,” Papyrus remarked. You both remained silent for a few seconds, just thinking about it and then, “YOU SAID THERES FOUR MUSCLES JUST FOR THE STOMACH?!”

“Well, something like that,” You sat up and pulled your shirt up to the ribs. “I haven't exactly been working out so it's not really obvious but if I tense-”

Underneath your skin, you showed him where the muscle shift in place and tighten up. Papyrus looked and then asked, “CAN I FEEL?”

You waved magnanimously, “Sure, why not.” You relaxed a second, to allow his phalanges to press against your stomach before tensing up again so he could feel your muscles jump into place. 

“WOWIE! I CAN'T EVEN TELL WHERE THE OTHER THREE MUSCLES ARE!” Papyrus looked impressed nonetheless. He pushed lightly and then let up, fascinated.

“I told you a lot of muscles aren't obviously there,” you relaxed again. “Aren't there monsters with muscles? Like Undyne maybe?”

“UNDYNE IS WAY MORE INTO BODYBUILDING THAN ANATOMY,” was his response. 

With that, you continued showing him different muscles across your body that you could show. The arms and back were the easiest with a little twisting and flexing and you even managed to name a few names, but you quickly came across a large problem. Many of the major leg muscles were strapped through your thighs and butt, and even with pajama shorts on it wasn't easy to show. 

“____? YOU'RE BLUSHING LIKE EARLIER,”

“Erm... I really can't show you most of these without taking off clothes... I'd like to play off like no big deal, but it'd be way too anime if one of our friends caught us in your room like that,” you explained. Much to your surprise Papyrus immediately colored too.

“YES LET'S AVOID THAT AWKWARDNESS!” Papyrus declared. Fascinated with his sudden flush you moved forward and pressed the pads of your thumbs across his cheek bones, “W-WHAT?!”

“I didn't know a skeleton could blush,” you smirked, you could actually feel the warmth increase as he blushed even harder.

“N-NO! SKELETONS DON'T BLUSH! I DON'T BLUSH!” he panicked, unable to escape your petting touch. You smirked, and he scrambled to qualify “I JUST EXPERIENCED AN INVOLUNTARY SURGE OF... UH, MAGIC?! RIGHT!”

You cocked your head to the side, “What kind of magic?”

“BLUSHING!!!” he closed his eyes in an apparent attempt to escape your attention, and you lowered your hands from his face, smirk softening.

“I think I wouldn't mind y'know,” you said softly.

“HUH?” he peeked through one eye.

“Being called Kitty,” you clarified. His embarrassment reminded you of earlier when you'd tried so hard to hide. In the end, it took you a full 5 minutes to peek out from inside his scarf, 2 minutes to get over your initial embarrassment, 3 minutes to get over being embarrassed for hiding in your friend's scarf. Really though, the only way that anyone treated you differently was that Mettaton would habitually pat you over the head whenever you did something “charming”. Most of the 'charming' things you did was 2 player co-op on Papyrus's team, and you suspected he really couldn't get over the fact you hid in Papyrus's scarf.

“WELL... THEN I ACCEPT YOUR NICKNAME! BUT ONLY YOU GET TO CALL MY PUPPY, OKAY?!! DON'T GO SAYING IT AROUND SANS OR UNDYNE!!! I WOULDN'T HEAR THE END OF IT!!” Papyrus gave you yet another stern look, but at least he didn't look so uncomfortable anymore. You attempted to stifle an impending yawn, but Papyrus immediately over reacted.

“OH NO! WE ALMOST SPENT ALL NIGHT TALKING AND YOU STILL HADN'T GOTTEN ANY SLEEP!” Papyrus lamented. “I AM THE WORST FRIEND EVER!”

It took a whole lot of scrambling in order not to be dumped back on the floor when he tried to simultaneously pull down the sheets and shove you into the proper sleeping position, and a whole lot of self control not to wake up the house laughing as he did it. You nearly fell off anyway only to be scooped back by Papyrus's arm hooking underneath you and heaving you back on.

“Night Puppy,” you managed to choke out through your bubbling laughter. You instinctively pulled the sheets up and burrowed into the bed.

Papyrus gave you a once over to ascertain that you were indeed in the right position for sleeping, and then responded softly, “NIGHT KITTY.”

Once he'd left and turned off the light, you grabbed an extra pillow and hugged it to you. Much better. Your heartbeat barely slowed to a resting rate before you were asleep again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, its been a crazy busy last couple of weeks, but I'm kind of proud of the chapter length and the additional progress. By the by, this is only the beginning of the 'exploration' tag!


	8. Hit and Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You begin introducing your best friend to your new monster friends and then someone tries to hurt Papyrus.
> 
> Warning! Some violence does occur in this chapter.

It had gotten busy in the last few weeks, really busy. You were swamped with learning new chemical formulas and mathematical theorems, as well as essays from your literature class, and Papyrus was faring no better. Outside of quick chats between classes and late night texts, you hadn't gotten to hang out much. Read also- not at all.

You stared listlessly at your textbook, only barely trying to make all of the diagrams coincide with the explanations. You weren't paying much attention to Booptube either, which had originally started out on Undyne's channel and gradually started skipping on into vocaloid and otaku territory. You nearly dropped your pencil in delight when a familiar song started playing, and you quickly texted Alphys, 

-Hey, so there's this awful thing we've started doing now where we take two characters that have absolutely nothing to do with each other and we go OMG I ship it!

After adding the link to the song, you sat there grinning stupidly at your phone. Finally, something productive to do with your life. Even if it's the exact opposite of productive. Your phone pinged almost immediately, a new record for Alphys.

-o-oh my god?! Its like someone p-put my life in a song?! =^o^= 

You “yuss-ed” to yourself with a fist pump and continued talking, despite knowing you'd probably regret your procrastination later.

-you and I have to memorize this song, and then sing it. we'll totally be stars man <3

Your “Underground” social account was the next to ding! when Alphys shared the link, and then she texted,

-i-i-i c-c-can't sing!!

You rolled your eyes.

-neither can I. mwahahaha! talent is for mortals ;P

You decided to risk an Alphys-anxiety attack and call her. It took only a ten separate rings before she picked up. Again, new record. She stuttered out “D-do you really think it'd be okay?”

“Alphys, dear, that's why I'm going outside to harass the rest of the apartment complex instead of my roommate,” you said soothingly. “Evil is best shared with the world in the middle of the night.”

Alphys gave an outraged sounding laugh. Fortunately, she sounded entertained and not terrified, “OH MY GOD w-why hadn't we met earlier?!”

“Well, you might've been trapped underneath an actual mountain while I was trapped in an extremely boring small town high school,” you joked. “But we're here now, and we have an obnoxiously catchy song to rehearse.”

True to your word you had walked outside with your laptop and phone, and were sitting at one of the benches that were set up near the apartments. Setting up for your little “performance” you realized you were missing someone else that you hadn't even been able to see since school started.

“Hang on Alphys, I need to get my best friend on the line! I'm gonna start a Hype call, so gimme a second!” You declared, hitting “end” before Alphys could reply and then adding both her and your friend into a chat and clicking “Call With Video”. You crossed your fingers and started chanting “c'mon” under your breath. Alphys responded, but you were still waiting for a beat and a half before-

“Hello? ____?” Amber responded. Your best friend's faced showed up on video feed next to Alphys and you squee-ed as loudly as you possibly could.

“AMBER MY ONE AND ONLY!!!! Its literally been years since I've seen you and I never want to be separated from you again and also meet a person here that I actually call friend, Alphys,” you rambled happily. “And also we're totally gonna memorize a song about shipping and break out and sing it in a flashmob and you're totally going to be my partner in crime because you're already my no-homo partner in life-”

“Hi-” Alphys managed to squeak through your long dialogue. Amused, Amber allowed you to continue on with declaring your kinda-sorta gay love for her, and how you all were going to be the highlight of your cousin's school dance singing the shipping song even though she was only in kindergarten and didn't even live near you or even have a school dance in the half decade and so you were probably just going to sing it at random anyway-

“____,” Amber finally stopped you. “How much sleep have you had?”

“The question dear Watson isn't how much sleep I've had, its how much caffeine I've had of which I have had much of and yes, I am probably like Deadpool level out of my mind at this moment. Which by the way, I totally mean it when I said I'll marry you and hide the bodies of your ex's in my backyard yandere simulator style,” you continued on happily.

“Go to sleep ____,” she told you as sternly as she could, which was only halfway successful. Her smile kept you from taking it too seriously. She'd missed you too. 

“But I don't wannnaaaa...” you whined.

“Let's talk tomorrow, okay? You sound like you're going out of your mind over there,” she bargained.

“Alllll right,” you acquiesced. You pouted in front of the camera. “But you will sing with us, yes?”

“When my brother and parents aren't sleeping? Yes. GO TO BED,” Amber said. You blew a kiss to the camera, and closed the call, leaving your two friends completely alone and not sure how to respond to their current situation. It didn't take you long to pick everything up, move back into your apartment and crash. Meanwhile, Amber decided to pick up the conversation with this strange new friend.

“Well, sorry about shutting down rehearsal time before you guys even started,” she apologized.

“U-uh, oh, yeah no, I think she's b-been like that all n-night,” Alphys stopped short, and then continued hesitantly, “My friend P-papyrus and her have been t-taking c-c-classes together and they've both been really b-b-busy.”

“Ah, I think I've heard her mention him once or twice? By the way, what's your name?”

Unexpectedly, they'd continued on like that for awhile. When your alarm went off, you found that they'd both left you messages on your messenger.

Amber:  
-i wanna meet all ur new friends. also, pics of you and papyrus? now that I know you have class with him this morning ;P

Alphys:  
-can we meet Amber soon? maybe during spring break?

For once in a few days, you smiled right after getting up.You got out the yogurt and booted up your laptop to check the latest news and stick a spoonful of yogurt in your mouth. Feeling a little more well rested, you posted a little ditty about yogurt

“Yummy yummy bacterial goop, it tastes like fruit and sometimes just goop. Bifidus is like Bidoof except you're not eating your pets. Don't eat your pets guys. They don't like that D: " 

Papyrus was the first to respond to your post, unsurprisingly. You were up early in the mornings, but as you found out from the sleepover, he was the true morning person. You'd gotten to sleep a couple of extra hours before he woke you up a full 3 hours before classes even started. You were reluctant to give up the warmth of your (his) blankets, but slowly and groggily, you got up and allowed yourself to be herded with everyone else into the kitchen for breakfast. 

“HAVE YOU BEEN SLEEPING? :\ AND WHAT'S A BIFIDUS? OR A BIDOOF?”

You giggled to yourself and type out your far too detailed babbling explanation of both bacteria in yogurt and Pokemon. Papyrus didn't seem to mind though, as he responded,

“GOT IT! -thumbs up- LET'S MEET EARLY FOR CLASS!”

You looked at your comment thread thoughtfully. You hadn't thought to take pictures with your friend, but maybe breakfast would be a good time for that. It didn't take you long to set up a meeting at a coffee shop inside the library near your classroom, and you made a point to set out early in case the buses were late.

You were waiting, nursing off a coffee at a table outside the library when you managed to spot him across the street. You stood up, leaving your coffee on the table to go greet him halfway when something caught your attention in the corner of your eye. Since the buses had to come and go every few minutes around this street, it was unusual and obstructive for cars to park at the street. This person had parked almost on the sidewalk, and seeing no license plate, you suddenly felt a flash of intuition drop through your gut like a cold rock. 

Papyrus was crossing the street as if everything was normal, and you started running only a second before you could hear the squeal of the car's tires. Mentally, you were calculating the likelihood that you could get both of you out of the street in time. It seems that you'd get hit, but if you could just relax into the blow then maybe you could distribute the force of impact and prevent the worst of damage.

All of this flashed through your mind before you managed to reach him in the middle of the street, as the vehicle bore down on the two of you. He seemed to realize the situation just as you shoved into him with as much as force as you could muster.

He fell backwards and you thought just maybe he was in the clear when his hand suddenly whipped out and grabbed your forearm, and with a harsh tug you were falling forward even further than you'd previously calculated. You could feel the car barrel into your side, forcing you to spin awkwardly through the air while driving away even as you and Papyrus were bounced roughly off the street, skittering and rolling across a solid dozen feet before slowly halting. The sidewalk raked across your back and legs in odd intervals during the flight and your body rang from the shock of your impact. 

Your heart pounding in your ears, you stared widely at your friend. Your dizziness forced you to remain lying limply on top of him. He'd wrapped his arms around you as you were sideswiped and pulled you to him closely before you'd hit the ground. You'd felt him roll with you so that you'd be protected from the worst of road rash. When you both stopped, you could have sworn you saw a flash of a life force bar decreasing oh so slightly, but when you focused your vision you just saw some nicks and a lot of scraping across his battle body and bones.

Out of breath, you both spoke at the same time,

“Are you okay?”

“WHERE ARE YOU HURT?!”

A reluctant laugh found its way to the back of your throat and threatened to become a sob. You realized with a touch of hysteria how close you both were to getting killed. “No idea, but hell if we don't make a good team.”

It was worth it to see his face light up in response, “THE COOLEST TEAM!”

A small crowd of people slowly edged close, and to your surprise your teacher Dr. Levan jogged to your sides with a cell phone out, already calling for an ambulance. She must've been here early too, likely to visit the kitchen lab and prep everything for the lesson.

“Are you two okay? Don't try to move, I've got emergency services on their way,” she knelt next to you, and even through your disorientation you and Papyrus managed to untangle from each other, a hazy part of your mind noting that you'd reflexively held onto his arm to when he'd pulled you forward. You felt a somewhat numb, the nerves across your injured side buzzing, only to hurt when you moved. “Let me see how you were hit-”

She slowly moved your shirt up and you helped by holding it out of the way, clutched to your ribs. You attempted to stretch out the side that you knew was hit, rips from the impact spread from the hips in your jean all the way down to the inseam next to your knee. Despite not feeling much when you were still, all three of you could see the reddened impression of the car's grate in your skin, and in a couple of seconds your clothes blossomed red from the cuts. You admitted reluctantly “I think my hip got the worst of it, I can't... sit well.” It wasn't a good place for anyone to get hit. 

Nonetheless, you glanced up at Papyrus with undisguised admiration. “Was that your Royal Guard training I got to see?”

He'd been examining your exposed skin with dismay, and replied absently with absolutely no boasting or put on airs, “YES.”

You grabbed his hand to catch his attention, and with absolute sincerity you told him “That was amazing. Thank you for catching me.”

He flushed, not with embarrassment but with anger. “DON'T THANK ME! YOU JUST GOT HURT BECAUSE OF ME!!!”

Your first thought was to “pshaw” but seeing his face you thought better of it. The only thing you could say was simply the truth,

“I'd do it again anytime.” 

He looked near tears, “ I... DON'T KNOW HOW TO RESPOND TO THAT.”

“Doesn't merit one,” you smiled, and then cringed as you tried to adjust the angle that you leaned on your hip.

“STOP MOVING! WHAT IF YOU BROKE SOMETHING?!”

The ambulance arrived, and your teacher looked between the two of you fondly. “You two really are too sweet. I can't go with you but I'll call who you need to come pick you up and excuse your absences. You'll find today's notes in your emails later.”

The dumbest thought drifted into your mind before the paramedics approached, “Does a selfie in an ambulance count as 'pics'?”

“What?” your teacher responded, giving you an odd look.

You started laughing and hiccuping at the idea of sending Amber a selfie from inside an ambulance. Yeah, that was probably the worst possible way to introduce your best friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ouch. Looks like Reader-chan is took a beating out there. But Papyrus is safe and that's all that matters!


	9. Hospital Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Possibly the only thing worse than something bad happening is all of the messy paperwork that comes afterwards. That and needles.

“Dad! I mean it! NO! I just got winged a little! I just have to get stitches and that's all- what? NO don't go yelling at my friends! NO ONE VOLUNTEERS TO HAVE MADMEN TRY TO HIT THEM AND THEY CERTAINLY DON'T VOLUNTEER FOR MADMEN TO VENT THEIR FRUSTRATIONS OUT ON THEM! Don't go scaring off people I like just because you can't see me and make sure I'm okay!” you stormed over the phone, with the hospital staff watching you with mixed reactions composed of amusement, trepidation, and disapproval.

“NO! You're an awful person and- hey, no, bad dad! Don't!- AND if you really want me to feel better, go to work as normal today, and when you get off work, buy me that candy I really like, okay? Just come check on me on your next day off, okay? Yeah, I mean it! I'm fine!!!” you knew you probably sounded like a brat, but despite the verbal exchange, the only real seriousness in the conversation was concerning your health. Your father sounded relieved once he heard the energy in your voice, and the projected irritation you used to scold him and stomp your foot.

The doctor coughed quietly, and you gave her a tense quick bob of the head, “Yeah, I have the insurance cards on me, and yeah. I really mean it. I'm fine. I love you, and I have to go get pricked by needles like, 50 different times. Cross your fingers, and if it's really bad, maybe I'll want some booze. I LOVE YOU AND GOODBYE DAD.”

You hung up with a huff, and rubbed your forehead. “Holy shit parents. Am I right?”

The doctor responded, “Er, yeah...” There was a faint air of disapproval, but that was probably to be expected in response to what might have sounded like a very disrespectful conversation. That was normal banter with your father though, and you were relieved that he allowed you to handle this by yourself, though not without a considerable fight. Shifting your attention to the present, you eyed the prepped equipment with more than a little wariness.

“So uh, that's happening huh?” you gulped. The curved needle on the table with the thread gleamed ominously.

“Yes ma'am, you need stitches in about 3 different cuts across your hip and thigh,” the doctor explained. You nodded tersely. You're going to be okay. It'll be fine. Lots of people go through stitches, and it probably wouldn't matter through the pain of the injury, right?! 

Right?!

“I've never uh, gotten stitches, um... how's this gonna go again?”

The doctor held a packaged syringe and a bottle. “I can tell that you're nervous about this, so I'm going to explain everything before hand. You just need to relax, okay? I'm going to inject a local anesthetic into here, and then I'm going to...”

“W-wait! There's more needles?!” You protested. You were trying to joke about the 50 needle thing on the phone, but it stopped sounding like an exaggeration. You involuntarily clenched the paper of the hospital bed you sat on, and felt it slowly rip. 

“Yes ma'am. Do you need something to help you get through this?” the doctor asked gently. You shook your head very quickly.

“Nope! I-I'll be fine! I can get through this no problem! I'm just a little phobic is all...” you breathed deeply, forcing yourself to relax. The doc swabbed your bare skin, jeans long removed to expose your deep red and purpling bruises and the swollen scrapes, you found yourself clenching again against the sting of alcohol. You exhaled a little too quickly and breathed in, relaxing again.

You forced yourself to watch the needle enter your skin, for the sake of toughing it out. However a slight buzzing entered your head, and when you felt the plunger depress and shove the drug deep beneath your skin, that buzzing grew to a steady ringing. You broke out in a cold sweat, and the next thing you knew you were blinking away the wash of darkness that obscured your vision.

“-don't sit up too fast now, ____. I have someone getting your friend, so that you'll be more comfortable,” you barely heard the doctor say through the receding tide of the ringing in your head. As your sight seemed to clarify, a stray bubble of darkness receded in on itself on the edge of your vision. It finally disappeared and you finally focused on what she was telling you.

“Isn't he getting treated right now..?”

The doctor shrugged helplessly, an odd movement from a professional. “His family came, they seem to have brought some sort of treatment more specialized for their kind... his injuries were minimal so your friend is welcome to leave at any time.”

You frowned at her explanation, but had no chance to interrogate her further as Papyrus burst through the door with extreme energy, “____! WHAT HAPPENED THIS TIME?!” You sat up from your prone position far too quickly, and nearly flopped over in dizziness.

“Whoa! Don't sit up so quickly!” the doctor seized your arm, looking very much like she regretted allowing the monsters in her treatment room. “Sir! If you can kindly lower your voice-”

Sans trailed behind with no apparent hurry. “ 'sup?” The lights in his eyes looked at you for a second then darted off to the side quickly. You didn't have a chance to think about it as the doctor quickly seized both of their arms and brought them outside to talk to them. You could hear something about inside voices and needing to distract you, and you got irritated with the whole situation.

“DOC friggin' let them in already, I'm not made out of glass over here!” you sat up carefully, ignoring the doctor's angry warning from outside the room, and hopped onto your feet- only to find that the numbness that set in at your hip made it impossible for you to stand and you tilted forward with alarming speed.

“WHOA!” you yelped partially catching yourself with one thrown out arm, and partially being caught by Papyrus who'd rushed in and grabbed you around the waist last minute. “I'm good!”

“CLEARLY NOT!” Papyrus scolded sharply. He looked every bit as exasperated as the doctor. “SIT DOWN AND COMPLY WITH THE DOCTOR!”

Oddly, he didn't look at you while he helped you back onto the crinkled paper of the bed. “Hey!! Who are you calling a non-compliant patient?!”

Sans nudged the doctor and gestured toward the table. She took a moment to get it, and then set to work on your leg.

“THEN WHY DID THEY CALL ME IN, HM?” Papyrus goaded you.

“Don't make me admit what happened, its really embarrassing!” you protested. “And I was totally cooperating by the way! It's not my fault I-” You slapped your hands over your mouth. Nope. Not saying it out loud.

“YOU MEAN THAT YOU PASSED OUT DURING TREATMENT?” Papyrus interrupted, browbones raised expressively. Yet, he still refused to look at you. “THAT SOUNDS PRETTY NONCOMPLIANT TO ME!”

Meanwhile the doctor was finishing the last of the stitches, as you glared at Papyrus suspiciously. “Hey, why won't you face me while you're talking anyway?” You grabbed his hand to get his attention and he flushed intensely, taking you aback.

“W-WELL THAT IS-” he stopped, sweating nervously like he couldn't think what to say next.

“Done! You can get your britches back on,” the doctor announced triumphantly. You blinked in surprise, first at the gauze patched over stitches in your deeply bruised thigh, and then at the way the bruise traveled up your leg and under your butterfly panties. Panties.

“OH SHIT I FORGOT I'M IN MY UNDERWEAR!” you shouted in realization. You let go of Papyrus to snatch at your pants and shimmy back in as quickly and painlessly as possible, trying your best not to lean on your numbed leg. The doctor started giggling at the sight, and even Sans snorted off in his corner. You turned to shoot them both a withering look. “Absolute worst bedside manner ever. Three out of ten.”

“c'mon buddy, don't needle us like that,” the corners of his eyesockets crinkled mischievously with his grin. On cue, you and Papyrus groaned.

“Two out of ten just for that pun, Sans,” you grumped.

“We just want to run a couple of tests to make sure that your fainting isn't a sign of concussion, and you'll be free to go home,” the doctor explained.

You sighed and flopped back onto the bed waving your hands lethargically. “Hooray...”

Your phone rang unexpectedly, and while you leaned over to get it, Papyrus got to it first. “Thanks-” you answered, “Hello?”

“Why is Alphys telling me you're in the hospital?” Amber questioned, deceptively cheerful.

“I suddenly regret answering my phone. Please don't yell at me,” you whimpered. “I think I've been scolded by three different people already.”

Papyrus looked at Sans questioningly, and he shrugged. “i just told toriel, but frisk must've overheard us talking.” You glanced at them disbelievingly. It still didn't explain how the news circulated in under an hour!

“Well, if you've already been lectured...” Amber sighed. “How's Papyrus doing?”

You were tired, really tired, but you couldn't let this conversation stay serious because she was already worried. You spotted the gauze and cloth bandages, and in a fit of extreme irresponsibility you nabbed it to stick more gauze on yourself and wrap the bandages around Papyrus who squawked indignantly. “Oh, it was TERRIBLE, blood everywhere~” you drawled dramatically, snapping a picture. “Take a look.”

“Oh my god... that's totally fake,” Amber giggled through the receiver. 

“Awww what gave it away?”

You could almost hear her roll her eyes, “The roll is hanging off Papyrus still. Put that away before you get in trouble.”

You spotted a nurse shuffling back into the room, “Too late, gotta go! I'll call you later when modern medicine is through with me. Later love!”

You hung up and sighed again. Untangling himself from the bandages, Papyrus frowned at the countless little scrapes and cuts the peppered your exposed arms. There was still quite a bit of dirt even though you'd wiped off the gravel earlier. The nurse approached with a bottle of an alcohol and started dabbing at the road rash and minor scrapes causing you to squeak indignantly, “OW watch the nerve endings woman! That hurts!” 

He grabbed the bottle of alcohol and opened it, and asked softly, “KITTY?”

You glanced over and heaved another sigh, “Have at it, I'll try not to complain too much.” You cringed quickly though, initially at the cold and then at the whip-like stinging throughout your nerves as he automatically began cleaning your other arm. Despite Papyrus treating you probably being against hospital policy, the nurse kept quiet and soon enough you were completely bandaged up. Only a few minutes after you started feeling comfortable in your skin again, a couple of officers showed up through the door.

Right. That accident was no ordinary hit and run, but someone had gone out of their way to keep their license plates off the vehicle in a planned attempt to hurt someone. You and Papyrus exchanged long suffering glances, and resigned yourselves to a day of paperwork, red tape, and police reports.

By the end of the day, you were both exhausted and stressed out. Sans was lucky enough to nap through the worst of the aftermath, and so he ended up being the one that ordered takeout around late afternoon, while you waged battle against sleep. Despite the pain in your leg, you lost pretty quickly once you leaned a little too far against your seat belt on your way to pick up food. Papyrus driving, and Sans lounging in the passenger seat, they were quiet for a few minutes before someone spoke up.

“hey bro?”

“YES?”

“... i'm glad you're okay.”

“NYEH HEH HEH I'M THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I'LL ALWAYS BE OKAY!”

“true. i just thought you should know, i'd be pretty bonely without my cool bro.”

“HEY AT LEAST THIS WAY YOU CAN BE BRO-NELY! NYEH HEE HEE!”

The brothers snorted quietly, both aware that you were snoozing in the backseat. Since you were asleep and hadn't gotten a chance to eat your lunch, you really weren't in any position to resist once Papyrus decided to take you home for another “sleepover” night. So after getting food, they returned back to their apartment.

Sans watched as Papyrus slowly eased you out of the car, taking care to lean your least injured side against him before you carrying you inside. There was some detail during the police report that Papyrus had said, that Sans wasn't quite sure he heard right. “so... that car was originally going to hit you... and then ____ pushed you out of the way?”

“YEAH... SHE EVEN SAID SHE'D DO IT AGAIN,” Papyrus said, a note of wonder creeping into his voice. His cheekbones flushed and Sans didn't miss the undisguised look of admiration he gave your sleeping form.

Sans nodded slowly, trailing behind him. He mumbled “guess i owe her one,” but in his mind he was worrying away at the situation slowly developing before him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Personally, I hate needles. I hate the way I can feel them underneath my skin, I hate the part where they depress a bunch of fluid in muscle tissue, yeah. I'll hold still for the whole thing, but I can never completely relax. Eugh! In any case, I got busy but my Spring Break is just about here, so I should be able to upload on a normal schedule again. In any case, don't worry about this story, I'm like 2-3 chapters written already.


	10. Spring Break Start!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans is trying to play mind reading games, and Frisk has none of it. Also, meet Amber!

Finally, Spring Break arrived, bringing with it a blessed sense of freedom and excitement. You hitched a ride with Papyrus to pick up Amber, and you both could hardly stand still during the road trip. On the way you were playing verbal games, anything from riddles to solve the mystery puzzles, to playing “I spy”. Much to the other driver's dismay, you even began a pose off based on the billboards you passed. Of course, it was all to channel your unbridled impatience in some way other than fidgeting.

When you screeched to a halt at her house, she'd walked out with a large suitcase, ready for the week long sleepover at your apartment. Needless to say, you clung to her like a favorite teddy bear and she joked “I almost didn't recognize either of you without bandages! I kinda thought Papyrus was a mummy.”

You both groaned in unison, “DON'T SPEAK OF THAT AWFUL INCIDENT!”

The second Papyrus learned that you accidentally fell climbing onto your apartment bunk bed one night, you found yourself spending at least half your time at Papyrus and Sans apartment and if not there, then at Alphys and Undyne's apartment to 'recover'. You weren't sure a diet of spaghetti and ramen noodles counted as recovery food, but at least you got to spend time with your friends again. At this point, Papyrus had long recovered from any nicks and your bruises stopped hurting, although you had turned some interesting shades of faded green and yellow. Your stitches had been recently removed as well. 

Unable to physically pry you off her, Amber settled for sharing the passenger seat with her and you hummed in contentment. Papyrus cackled and then said, “YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE PURRING! JUST LIKE A KITTY.”

“Hey!!” you yelled indignantly. Then you winked and stuck your tongue out. “I represent that!”

Amber managed to awkwardly twist through you sitting in her lap and the seat belt over you both to shake hands with Papyrus. “By the way, it's totally cool to meet you!”

The best part of the whole thing, was that you got to introduce her not only to Papyrus, but when you got back you all ended up sleeping over at Papyrus and Sans apartment with Undyne, Alphys, Frisk, and Mettaton for the night. You were taken aback at first seeing Mettaton, who'd apparently traded his calculator appearance for something somewhat more humanoid, but Alphys quickly explained,

“I made some adjustments to EX so that it would be more practical to use on a daily basis.”

“How do you like this body, beauties? I think my legs look fabulous myself~”

You shrugged and shook your head ruefully, “Well, your chat name suddenly just made a whole lot more sense.” You retrieved a CD from your backpack, “I hope you guys prepared yourselves for a whole lot of randomness because I'm edumacating you noobs on the joys of when American baseball meets anime robots and crazy aliens!!!”

Sans eyed the girl on the CD dubiously, “its not like mew mew kissy cutie is it? i'm not sure i'm feline up to another one of those.”

“H-hey!” Alphys protested. “Mew Mew Kissy Cutie is really good!”

Ignoring the spew of nerd babble from Alphys, you chuckled, “Not at all. It's way more inappropriate.”

The rest of the night was spent like that, and this time it was you and Amber who took over the kitchen with spaghetti production. Amber loyally followed your instructions, never questioning even when you opened a new small tube of anchovy paste and squeezed some out onto the heated sauce pan. 

“WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?” Undyne and Papyrus on the other hand, were like two large persistent pets that kept getting under foot.

“Why aren't the vegetables PULVERIZED?!”

“SHOULDN'T YOU PUT THE NOODLES IN BEFORE THE WATER HEATS UP?”

For Sans' part, he watched suspiciously as you did everything without once pulling out measuring utensils or a cookbook, “uh, i'm not sure i'm fennel with this. it seems im-pasta-ble that you don't need to measure anything.”

Nonetheless, as the smell in the kitchen grew herbal and savory, Alphys managed to help Amber herd Papyrus and Undyne out while Sans simply got tired of hovering and left voluntarily. Frisk watched over your shoulders, absorbing your every action.

You winked at Frisk and leaned back conspiratorially, “Anchovy paste really makes the sauce. If you really want to drive someone crazy, give them a recipe without anchovy paste- they'll never figure it out.”

You tested the marinara sauce, and made adjustments based on what you found lacking. Amber drained the water from the noodles, and with a nod, everything was done. No explosions, no glitter, and the kitchen itself suffered no attacks from Annoying Dog. After the kitchen table was set up, everyone scooped up their individual servings, and you were pleased to see that everyone scooped plenty.

However, you did feel yourself succumb to an attack of shyness. What if you used something that monsters didn't like? You were mumbling to your plate when you asked, “How is it?”

“This is great!” Mettaton gushed. “Perhaps I ought to give you a cameo on my cooking show!”

Frisk's mouth was full of noodles, but they flashed a “heart” with their hands. They also scribbled on a napkin, with an arrow drawn towards Mettaton “Don't do it :| .”

Undyne couldn't speak for a couple of minutes after trying to gobble a way-too-large mouthful, but managed to choke out an affirmative anyway. You mentally upgraded your comparison from a fish to a shark monster.

Amber sighed happily, “I've even missed your cooking. The last time we've worked together was that grilled peaches and amaretto-honey sauce we made your last birthday...”

“W-WOWIE!!! THIS IS...” Papyrus teared up, and you watched with alarm “...ASTOUNDING! HOW DID YOU HIDE YOUR TALENT?! ALL THIS TIME..!” You shrugged helplessly, and tried to comfort him with a shoulder pat only to be swooped up in a hug.

“AHH!!!” you laughed and squirmed to avoid being dragged through spaghetti.

Alphys smirked to herself and muttered to Undyne with Sans listening, “Her dating power is over 9000!”

Sans choked, and Undyne howled with so much FUHUHUHUHUHU!!!! that it startled Papyrus into dropping you and Amber barely had time to rescue you from bashing your head on your own chair.

When the slow eaters were the only ones left, you and Undyne started up the anime, and you wandered back in the kitchen to mass produce popcorn, as well as dig into your backpack for your own collection of drinks. You set everything out from soda, to hot chocolate, to 3 or 4 different favorite flavors of tea you'd collected over the years, and stuck your head out to collect “drink orders”. Preparing a cup of peach and flower tea for yourself in advance, it was easy enough to take care of Alphys and Amber who preferred soda, Undyne took the same tea you did, while Frisk tried chai tea for the first time with Papyrus. Sans skipped the selection completely to pull out a bottle of ketchup from the fridge, you watched skeptically as he chugged half the bottle down and then exhaled happily. 

“Damn! Enjoying that are you?” you laughed, eyebrows furrowed and a perplexed look on your face as your tried to figure out why a skeleton would drink ketchup of all things.

Sans laughed as well, but said nothing about the matter. Instead, he changed the subject, “so its been a couple of months since you and my bro met. what do you think of him?”

“Well... he has work cut out for him if he plans on becoming a professional chef. That worries me a little, especially because there's still some intense xenophobia against monsters and that probably won't go away. There is a silver lining to the cloud though!” you responded thoughtfully. “Papyrus is just so nice, its more than a little difficult not to like him. More so, I didn't even realize that I was willing to get hurt on his behalf but it looks like I am!”

You were caught up in your thoughts, so much so that you missed the subtle grimace on Sans face. “It's only been a couple of months but... at some point, I started thinking of him like a best friend, somewhere close to the same level as Amber.” you glanced at Sans, smiling ruefully. “I guess I just took the scenic route to answering your question. But, that's how I feel.”

You were quickly waved off, Sans “eh, don't worry 'bout it. i just wanted to know something real quick.”

“Shoot,”

“would you tell the truth, even if it might hurt his feelings?” Sans asked. You looked down in your cup of tea, watching escaped leaves swirl lazily in the path of the teabag.

“Hm...” this was a tough one. You were reluctant to see his hurt face, but if people were so phobic of monsters that they were willing to hurt them, then Papyrus would need to work much harder just to persuade them to accept him. So your response became “I... well, I guess I ought to, shouldn't I? With people as they are... yes, I will.” you nodded to yourself, affirming the decision. “I think in my position, lying would probably do more harm than good.”

You glanced back at Sans, but he was already gone. You blinked in surprise, temporarily taken aback, and looked to the entryway of the kitchen, seeing only Frisk. There was no sign of Sans, but you hadn't heard him leave either. He was like a weird skeletal house cat. You reorganized all of the drinks that you brought, and pushed them out of the way while sighing sympathetically to the hot chocolate mix. You gave the box a pat and mentally promised to come back to it. Handing Frisk their chai, you carefully balanced the other tea drinks and made your way to the living room. Sans was there, almost like he'd been there all along. After handing everyone their drinks, Alphys started the anime. Watching raptly, you clung to your tea with your eyes glued to the screen and sat on the floor, leaning up against the couch. Amber patted your head with a little eye roll from her seat on the couch.

At the right moment a little later, you pulled Frisk into a tight sweeping hug and recited lines with the show-

“Oh, I'm already in that kind of relationship with Ta-kun here!” 

The only ones who'd watched the anime enough to play along with you where Alphys and Amber, and play along they certainly did. “HOW DO YOU MEANNNN?!” They shouted, nearly drowning out the actual show.

“MOUTH TO MOUTH!!!” you crowed, using an old stage technique to act as if you were kissing Frisk while they swooned dramatically. You giggled and tickled their sides deviously while they squeaked and struggled, laughter bubbling out of the normally quiet child. Mettaton slapped both hands to his cheeks.

“M-m-mouth?! OH MY!!” No longer able to restrain himself, he threw himself at you both, effectively bowling you to the ground. “THE DRAMAAAAA!!!” 

During another episode, you caught Papyrus's eye and pulled your hands up to your head, mouthing 'meow' along with the lines. You both snickered quietly to your personal joke. You were still sitting on the ground, mostly intact from Mettaton's previous tackle, and despite the couch being far too full for another person to be sitting it, you pulled yourself up into Amber's lap. Then you folded your legs across Papyrus's lap so that you can lean into both of them contentedly.

Papyrus, sweating a little, fidgeted. Carefully he placed his hands across your knees and when you gave no sign of disturbance, rested them fully. 

Once the anime dissolved into a collection of strange and somewhat disturbing images that made only minimal sense to even you after watching so many times, everyone but you and Alphys lost interest. A video game was booted up instead, this time playing Smash! Time Players. With your favorite anime discarded like smelly socks, you sulked and called dibs on the first fight.

While everyone was distracted, Frisk poked Sans hard in the ribs and signed irritably at him, “I saw that face you made at her in the kitchen.”

“aw, don't go ribbin' at me kiddo,” Sans paused, and then signed instead, “just looking out for my bro.”

Frisk simply squinted their eyes in an impressive impression of an angry Toriel, “Don't act like you know her response beforehand!”

“she didn't even know what I was asking anyway,” Sans signed slowly. “i can't say that bodes well for 'yes'.”

“No making scary faces, or cryptic talks,” Frisk conditioned firmly.

Sans felt a bead of sweat roll down his skull, as he signed rapidly, “no promises.”

They pouted at him, but were unable to continue their conversation as controllers were thrown in both of their laps for their turns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> True thing about the anchovy paste by the way. Makes awesome marinara. Also I stayed up way too late tinkering with this chapter, and I think I need to release it to the world so that I can sleep and go spend my day with my best friend equivalent of Amber. Otherwise, I'll never stop rereading it and trying to make it better.   
> An alternate scene for Sans and Reader that I entertained, was the idea of Sans doing his black eyesocket thing and instead of getting the hint, Reader gets all fascinated and asks him a bunch of questions ("Can you see when you do that? How do skeletons visualize things anyway, do you have light receptors or is it just a magic thing? Can you see other parts of the light spectrum that humans can't?") while he just sweats it out with a total intimidation failure, but I thought that might've been too silly for Reader. It seems far more likely that Sans would try to hint at things while not answering a goddamn thing and Reader would just totally misinterpret what he's actually talking about.  
> But still, meditate on this image of a flummoxed Sans. I think it probably would've been pretty funny.


	11. Spring Break End?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unabashed fluff. Fluff for weeks. Brush your teeth after this, you'll probably get cavities.
> 
> In which Papyrus gets you back for stealing something from him.

The next morning, everyone visited an arcade, though only after dropping Frisk off. Toriel insisted on having them back, without specifying any particular reason. What was strange was that Frisk nodded solemnly and even after an blowing a kiss in Amber's direction with her reciprocating with a tight hug, and accepted missing out on arcade time with a cheerful wave. A stray thought told you that they seemed to be planning something.

At the arcade, everyone scattered every which way, and you viewed the DDR machine with equal amounts of suspicion and intrigue. Amber grabbed hold of your arm, and with a grin pushed you on, feeding the machine the necessary change.

“Oh fine!” you grumped with put-on reluctance. “If I absolutely MUST!..” You viewed the song list and finally found one you recognized- and didn't make you want to shove a pencil in your eardrum.

“Hoo ha! Hoo ha! Have you ever been in love? He's my best friend, best of all best friends~!” The song whirred the machine to life, and you flung yourself every which way to keep up with the dance moves. Amber laughed and cheered and you stuck your tongue out briefly, before almost biting it mid-jump.

“The things I do for you! You better be staring at my butt for this!” The way the dance pad was set up, you had to put a lot of force on the steps making your chest bounce uncomfortably. You only just started finding the best rhythm when you heard Undyne snicker and say,

“GET OUT THERE NERD!”

Suddenly, it was a two player game and a quick sideways glance told you that Papyrus had literally been shoved onto the adjacent dance pad with no direction whatsoever. You shouted “Watch what I do!” and you resumed your quest to conserve oxygen.

“Do you have a best friend too? With tickles in your tummy, he's so yummy yummy hey you should get a best friend too!” 

The score resumed its steady accumulation and triumphantly you started to improvise a dance routine with hand movements too. Papyrus continued to mimic your motion regardless of whether or not you earned points successfully and at some point you stopped even paying attention to the score just to rib and jostle at him playfully. The score got completely off track and now you both were just messing with each other, spinning around wildly when a laser beam sound charged up and “exploded” on the screen. You fell on your butt, a mess of giggles and gasping to get your breath back while Amber leaned over the game rail to check on you. Your leg only hurt a little, easily ignored and you stuck out one hand with a thumbs up. 

“Totally okay!” you yelled gleefully. Papyrus offered a gloved hand and you took it to hop back onto your feet. “All right who's next?! I'm pretty sure I saw Barbie Girl on there...”

Amber bit her lip, with a shit eating grin and shook her head slowly. You looked around for Undyne, only to realize that she took off at some point after shoving Papyrus onto the dance track.

“Oh C'MON, the worst performer history has ever seen went up first and no one's willing to follow up that act?!” you stuck out your bottom lip in an exaggerated pout and crossed your arms.

After that, everyone was just playing games at random, either collecting tickets or trying at some of the generic prizes inside the very rigged arcade machines. Somehow though, Sans managed to coax one machine into dropping an actual game system. You personally suspected there might've been magic involved thanks to quantum pranks Papyrus have warned you about, but you weren't there when he pilfered the machine of its treasure. Amber had been around to hear it fall, and at her questioning glaze from her position at a basketball hoop game, he clarified “for the kid.”

After spamming a plinko machine that you accidentally discovered a sweet spot in for tickets, you got bored and started playing a Primevil combat PVP with Undyne. No one was surprised when Papyrus stationed himself at a racing game and proceeded to challenge anyone who'd sit next to him. It was like he was the skeleton gatekeeper for racers. Honestly, it made you think of Monty Python and you had to repress giggles more than a few times watching kids either get scared off or get pumped up competing and forgetting that he was a skeleton monster. In fact, he earned himself a few fans just keeping the game interesting with puzzles and odd banter.

“HEY eyes on the game nerd!! You're wiping out and I'm not even trying!” Undyne snapped. True to word, your moth monster had all but crashed under the barrage off ape swipes.

Eventually, you were getting really thirsty, and agreed to call the match with Undyne to start collecting people. You were impressed when you ran into Alphys and Mettaton holding a literal mountain of tickets on your way to a drinking fountain. Apparently they were able to trigger a “jackpot” on the slot games and you suspected magic again. It did make it easier for everyone to get a halfway decent prize from the reward room, and you were pleased to be able to collect a mini journal keychain and a small pile of candy. Well, to be fair, the candy was part of the huge jackpot that Alphys and Mettaton distributed as a gift to everyone. You thanked them heartily, and grabbed a bunch of non licorice flavors.

You did scowl though when Mettaton ambushed you with a pair of cat ears from his ill-gotten tickets.

“Purrfect,” he smirked. You expressed your displeasure with a deliberate hiss.

“hey, that's my shtick.” Sans protested jokingly. He was busy finding places in his jacket for a terrifying number of whoopie cushions, joke vomit, and joy buzzers and you swore to yourself not to sit anywhere near him for the rest of the semester. “i oughta be the one throwing a hiss-y fit.”

The food in the arcade looked pretty old and gross under the heat lamps though, so you all went for ice cream instead. Sans for his part, dismissed himself with a punderful excuse of “got a skeleTON of work to do, heh.” and literally just disappeared.

“HE PROBABLY WANTS TO GET THAT GAME SYSTEM TO FRISK,” Papyrus huffed proudly. “EVEN MY BROTHER CAN BE PRETTY COOL SOMETIMES.”

Alphys and Undyne led the group to the Nice Cream stand, and started chatting up the vendor. Apparently, most monsters were pretty familiar with the blue bunny guy but all you could think of was an ice cream brand that could really use his face on the cover. You bought some ice cream from the stand, and wandered close to the park that was near the arcade while waiting for everyone to catch up. You tested the temperature of the ice cream by sticking your tongue in a crack through the chocolate shell, and determined that there was no way you could bite into it without experiencing excruciating pain. Gingerly, you bit off a large chunk of the chocolate shell, and after eating it, stuck your tongue out to taste the vanilla ice cream. The way you suckled carefully from the ice cream attracted attention from men passing by, but surrounded by friends you were given no more than a cursory leer.

Amber shook her head in exasperation at your perfect obliviousness while Mettaton sniggered at Alphys drooling through her ice cream. At one point while you were working the ice cream down to the cone, melted ice cream started to drip over and you licked at the sides and your hand too. Happening to glance up in this process you realized that your friends were nearly all staring while you ate, even while they were eating their own ice cream. “What?”

Undyne cleared her throat, and said “The way you're eating?”

You smirked. “You guys are perverts. I'm sensitive to cold.”

Mettaton mock swooned onto your shoulder “Oh darling~! You don't say.”

You shoved him back playfully, “Its the truth! Its not my fault y'all can't stay out of the gutter.”

Amber offered in your defense, “It's true, she uses sensitivity toothpaste.”

You nuzzled her to the best of your abilities with sticky hands and an ice cream cone “I knew there was a reason why I chose you to be my honorary waifu!”

“And you're sure its not because of my rack?” Amber quirked an eyebrow. “Like, you fall asleep on my boobs all the time.”

“Don't be so cruuuuel Amber-chan!” you crunch down the last of the ice cream cone, carefully navigating the remaining ice cream past beyond your teeth and swallowing. “You know the love I'm saving is all for youuuuu!” you declared in your best Kamon Nandaba impression. You refused to actually mess her clothes up by groping her with sticky hands but you threw your arms around her and used your height to pretend to chew on the top of her head.

“Om nom!”

“HEY knock that off! Weren't you just accusing everyone of being perverts?” Amber 'struggled' but really just leaned into your hug, and you felt the full extent of your affection. You stopped flailing around and nuzzled contentedly instead.

“I have to keep up or else y'all will make the mistake of thinking I'm all innocent. 'Cuz then I'd have to draw a shit ton of porn,” you sighed dramatically. “And I still have trouble drawing kissy faces.”

Papyrus seemed to be deep in thought. He hadn't been outright staring the same way Alphys was, but he'd watched you for a moments before realizing himself how intensely he'd been staring. He became too distracted to take note of his melting ice cream, and looked away.

You noticed that he hadn't eaten much of his Bisicle, and with a fully mischievous expression on your face you released Amber to snap off one side and pop it in your mouth. It was soft enough for you to snap off the tip, and carefully crush it with your mouth.

“HEY!” Papyrus snapped out of it instantly to squawk indignantly. “DON'T STEAL THE SKELETON'S ICE CREAM!!”

You leaned back giggling, “Relax there's more than half left! I just had to save it from melting all over you.” You offered the stolen Unisicle back, dripping minimally less than when you stole it. 

Exasperated, he accepted it back, quickly finishing off the part he originally had and then working on eating the one you stole. Pleased to have gotten a rise from him, you darted ahead into the park to flop onto a swing seat. “MAN its been ages since I've just gotten to act like a kid! Undyne, lets see how high we can swing before gravity throws us off!”

“YEAH!” Undyne cheered as she nearly destroyed the adjacent swing seat with a hardcore belly flop. You chomped down on a piece of taffy and pushed off with the swing swaying violently to the sides. You nearly smacked into Undyne and you struggled to straighten your path.

“HEY!!! WAIT UP!” Papyrus plopped into a seat next to you, bones rattling for a brief second. Gravity didn't take long to dump you unceremoniously a few feet from the swingset, but as the frame of the swingset shook violently from the intensity of Undyne and Papyrus competing, you counted yourself lucky. Trudging over to join Alphys at the toy castle, you realized that the candy you had got hopelessly dirty and spat it back out into the wrapper to throw away later. The competition ended as Undyne did multiple gravity-defying loops across the swing and got herself hopelessly entangled in the top bar of the frame. You gasped in genuine surprise and giggled as you joined Papyrus and Mettaton in freeing Undyne from the swing, with Alphys following worriedly behind you.

After successfully freeing her, mostly thanks to Mettaton's extremely powerful mechanical strength, you bounded over to the toy castle, ducking under the short roof and planted yourself at the top of the slide. You harrumphed theatrically and declared loudly “I'VE TAKEN THIS CASTLE FOR MY OWN AND SHALL DECLARE MYSELF QUEEN!”

Papyrus approached you as you broke out another piece of taffy and bit into it triumphantly. He scolded, “YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO ESTABLISH A MONARCHY HERE! THIS IS A FREE PLAYGROUND!”

You made a “mmmt!” hum and leaned forward as if you were sticking your tongue out and not a piece of cherry taffy.

He frowned “DON'T STICK YOUR TONGUE OUT AT ME, YOUNG LADY!”

“Shhtop me!” you taunted. You dug your heels in, so to speak, refusing to back down when he leaned forward ominously.

Maintaining eye contact, he slowly bit the piece of candy you were using in lieu of a tongue, and then pulled back gently, stealing most of it. He grinned coyly and straightened up, chewing “THAT'S FOR STEALING MY ICE CREAM! NYEH HEH HEH!”

You stared at him comically, a hand immediately flying up to cover your mouth and tried to wipe off your intense blush. You're not sure what you'd expected. Mettaton sidled up slyly.

“Cat got your tongue?” 

In a rare display of flustered violence, you swatted Mettaton with the cat headband and promptly hid your face in your shirt again. Something soft fell around your head and you peeked up curiously.

“JUST IN CASE YOU TRY TO CAPTURE ME AGAIN,” Papyrus straightened his scarf around your neck, smiling softly. You pulled up the scarf to cover your cheeks, unaware of your friends taking pictures.

Ba-dump.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only long after writing this chapter did I realize that it 100% does not contribute to any bigger plot other than for character bonding. *shrugs* What can you do? I did steal a friends Airheads candy straight from his mouth like that once. There's something really satisfying in seeing someone get all flustered like that, heheh. Seriously though, you should probably visit a dentist after this. Or maybe get checked for diabetes. Any kind of medical care really.


	12. Canaries in the Coalmine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your professor wants a talk with you. You don't like what he has to say.

It was back to the grind, and with it, a desperate need for snack food. Well, food in general. It was pretty easy to run out quickly when it was you and Amber instead of just you. No regrets of course, that vacation was much needed, and both of you got to work on your respective hobbies. Whereas, you preferred to draw, visualizing different ideas on each page, Amber liked photography. She didn't just do digital either, she had a basement where she carefully developed pictures herself. You weren't sure what she did exactly, but she often altered the apparent “lighting” in the photos.

This week wasn't the first time you found yourself as one of her subjects, but it certainly was the first she considered submitting them to the local fair in your hometown this week. She messaged you that morning, saying that one of the pictures of you and Papyrus came out really well. You agreed without concern, your other friends had already absolutely saturated the Underground network with pictures of the vacation, and you gave up on the idea of privacy pretty quickly.

“____!” you turned to the source of the voice, small ice cream tub in hand. Your literature professor, Dr. Carter, stood there. You blinked in surprise, shaken out of your thoughts.

“Hello sir, I didn't expect to see you here. How are you?” You responded politely. 

“Fine, thank you. Busy. I wanted to talk to you,” Dr. Carter said. You eyed him apprehensively, not sure you were up for a talk in a grocery store of all places, but at least it didn't seem to be likely he wanted to talk about your grades. 

“Is something wrong?” you hedged.

“Not exactly, but I wanted to talk to you about the people you've been hanging out with. Well, the monsters,” he started, and you narrowed your eyes suspiciously.

“How do you know who've I've been around? Besides Papyrus that is,” you responded.

“I may be old, but I've seen some of those pictures of you with all of those monsters on social media. You've already called out of class once for getting hurt on their behalf,” your teacher frowned, “Don't you think its time you started drawing back? They're not human, you know that.”

You clenched your jaw in sharp irritation. Your body posture was stiff, as you stepped to face him. Silently, you dared him to continue.

“Honey, I've seen quite a few kids fall into the wrong crowd. You're a good girl though, intelligent, thoughtful... you shouldn't have to find yourself in such dangerous situations just for the thrill,” your professor said soothingly, almost reasonably. If it wasn't for the fact that he was talking about your monster friends specifically. He advanced forward enough for you to get more uncomfortable with the situation. “You don't need to make yourself a target for them.”

“A target?” you asked, deceptively calm. Internally, you were insulted. Did he really think you were only thrill seeking?

“Those pictures online... Quite a few of your classmates have been sharing one in particular. If people keep seeing you with that skeleton, they may get the wrong idea. That monster is already target, and at this rate, you'll be discriminated against as well as a monster supporter,” he explained.

You responded, “I'm well aware of the discrimination that monsters face. In fact, we've built nearly the entirety of pop culture based on vilifying monsters. The very connotation of the word monster in fact, is adversarial at best.”

“Honey, they aren't huma-” he tried to say, but you weren't finished in the slightest, and you cut him off. Your words increased in volume involuntarily, quickly becoming a rant.

“They aren't human, so that makes them what? Sub-human? Don't mistake humanity for the pinnacle of righteousness. Monsters didn't get trapped underground because they're evil and we're good. The trouble is, is that they lost because humans are brutal in the right circumstances. Just give people something to believe in absolutely, and everything else will suffer for it- logic, empathy, mercy...” you trailed off.

“Then, you shouldn't give people an excuse to hurt you,” your teacher reasoned. 

“I won't,” you said instantly, the idea unthinkable. “What was all of that work for civil rights over generations? Title VI? How about Brown V. The Board of Education? The nationwide legalization of gay marriage? That's a huge contribution from your generation as well.”

Dr. Carter no longer seemed to be listening, though he stood next to you impassively. Riled up, you slammed your fist against the freezer door, the glass rattling with a hollow whump! His eyes were wide as they met yours and you locked with his gaze coldly.

“Furthermore, there aren't that many of them, the vilifying propaganda is there, and it's easy to pick them out in a crowd. They are vulnerable, and that is why we should be protecting them at all costs. They are our canary in the coalmine. During the holocaust, the mass murdering started out with the Jews, a distinct and small subset of the population,” you said quietly and deliberately. “Then the victims kept piling up. Each group was just a little different from the rest... gypsies, black or even dark featured people, homosexuals, and so on. The Aryan race makes no exceptions for misfits.”

“And here you stand, telling me I ought to ditch my friends,” you hissed between your teeth. “Because it might get dangerous? Those people that want to hurt monsters, they want to hurt me anyway because I. Am. Not. Them. So to argue that monsters problems are not my own is absolutely ridiculous, and you better damn well avoid underestimating that fact in the future,” you growled with finality.

Both of you stood there, the silence hanging heavily.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but thought better of it and turned to finish he was doing there and left, the wheels of his shopping cart squeaking anticlimactically through the quiet freezer aisle. You exhaled the breath you didn't realize you were holding.

You hadn't consciously realized it until you recited the Holocaust as an example, but history did show that the monster community was vulnerable. They were in a perilous position, and their ambassador was just a kid, no matter how peaceful, intelligent, or hard working Frisk was. How were they going to defend themselves if the wrong people fall into power? You tried to return the sweating tub of ice cream to the freezer, your grip numb and muscles in your arm trembling tensely, and it slipped out of your grip and rolled away.

“For the love of- get back here you dickwaffle...” you grumbled obscenely, closing the freezer door to chase after it when a towering figure picked it up. Your eyes traveled up past the grass stained pants and ridiculous Hawaiian shirt and met with oddly slitted pupils and a muzzled face. “Oh...”

“I do believe this was trying to make an escape, little one,” the goat monster's voice rumbled deeply. The shopping cart bounced excitedly and you realized that Frisk was standing in the cart, waving excitedly.

“Ah! Thank you, and give me a sec Frisk jeez,” you quickly put away the tub before hugging Frisk tightly. A pot with a yellow flower was secured in the child's seat of the shopping cart, but you didn't give it much thought as a furry palm was held out. You shook the goat monster's hand, putting together the context in previous conversations to conclude that this was Asgore.

“I couldn't help but overhear your conversation,” Asgore said gently. “You seem to have a put a lot of thought to our situation.”

Nerves frazzled in the aftermath of confrontation, you reflected back frantically and worried over everything you said in an instant. Its one thing to have foot and mouth syndrome and piss off the man that gives you your grades, but what if you said something insensitive about your friends as well?

“I'm so sorry you had to hear that,” you apologized, trying not to panic internally.

“No no! My goal was not to make you uncomfortable young one,” Asgore reassured you. Frisk signed at him quickly, “____, is it? You seem to be rather insightful for a human.”

“Wait, is THIS the human that Papyrus has been talking about?” a higher pitched voice suddenly projected from nowhere, and you cocked your heard to the side trying to track the voice to its source. Frisk grabbed the flowerpot and held it up so that you were face to face with the flower... monster?

You examined each other dubiously. You edged forward carefully,“Hiya..?”

The flower broke into a wide easygoing grin, “Howdy! I'm Flowey! As you might see, I'm an actual flower.” He held out a leaf as if it were a hand or paw.

Something about the stillness of his face didn't quite match the animation of his expression. You were put off by it, and avoided touching him. You saw a quick flash of different fantastically annoyed facial expressions before he relaxed and announced “Golly! Its a real pleasure to meet you,____. It's almost hard to believe, but you actually seem halfway smart.”

You're pretty sure that qualified as a backhand compliment. In fact, the little flower's whole demeanor seemed rather sardonic, and he smirked, “At the very least, at least you're not drooling over Smiley Trashbag like all the other idiots around here.”

You were still trying to process what you saw when his face shifted and missed what he was saying, but Flowey's dialogue was quickly cut off by Frisk patting him roughly, and wagging a finger in his face. You were still fairly clueless about ASL but even you could guess the “play nice” connotations. Flowey bit his finger and Frisk yanked at a petal.

“Has that man approached you about such a matter before?” Asgore asked you, ignoring the mini-fight going on in the shopping cart.

“No, he hasn't. He's my literature teacher, but he doesn't seem to like monsters much. It's just really strange that he wanted to talk to me in the grocery store like that,” you told him. You gradually relaxed watching Flowey and Frisk interact, Flowey finally releasing Frisk's hand and the two sticking their tongues out at each other sullenly. You finally turned back to Asgore, shrugging. “I'm pretty sure I shouldn't expect much mercy on the next grade.”

“Perhaps you would like to talk it over some tea? I hear students around here are always up for the “pizza” that takes up the aisle here,” Asgore offered, sweeping in an oddly grandiose gesture. True to his words, pizza took up an entire side of the freezer section. Clearly health wasn't priority in a college town. “Perhaps you and Frisk would enjoy that for lunch?”

“I still have to finish up my own grocery shopping,” you mentioned sheepishly even as Frisk nodded emphatically. You didn't want to seem like you were reluctant to join them after your odd little showdown with Flowey, but you weren't sure how long the visit was going to last. Things tended to get side tracked when you visited your monster friends. “I'm not sure if some of the food will keep.”

“There's plenty of room in the fridge for everything to keep, and you speak as if you're familiar with human history. I find that will be very useful to know,” Asgore coaxed. Thoughtful, you nodded. Asgore radiated the same parental presence as Toriel meaning you trusted him instinctively and you knew he was the king of the underground previously. Human history and politics were both topics that would be strictly necessary to navigate integrating monsters into human society, and Asgore was probably still heavily involved in that process.

“There's a lot I don't know, I'm not a history major,” you warned.

“Somehow, I think everything you do know will still be news to me,” Asgore chuckled. Flowey and Frisk looked up, suddenly aware of the direction the conversation led to. You nodded.

“I'll try my best, and I'll look up what I don't know,” you said with determination.

“Wait, she's coming back with us?” Flowey grumbled. Frisk grabbed your hand and bounced in place, rattling the cart. “HEY! I'm kinda root bound back here! Don't knock me over!”

So that's how you ended up sitting in the garden with a mug full of golden flower tea and a plate of pizza relaying as much as you could recall from history classes, while watching a flower monster drink golden flower tea and Frisk watering different flower pots. You were somewhat distracted with thoughts of plant cannibalism or possibly vampirism when Asgore took advantage of your exhaustion with the topic of history.

“What major are you, ____?” he asked, sipping away at his second cup of tea.

“I'm a microbiology major, but I work in a virology lab on campus,” you answered.

“That sounds like quite a bit of work, are you planning on becoming a doctor?”

“Purely research, I'd like to think I could research something for food production or maybe designing microbes like yeast for specialty foods, but it's just as likely I'll end up in medical research at this rate,” you explained.

“Ah, truly a good match for Papyrus then,” He smiled. “When did you get together anyway?”

You choked on your tea and Flowey cackled evilly, “Oh my god. The look on your face..!”

You were too busy coughing to respond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flowey please, the 4th wall in the story can't take your shit.
> 
> This isn't very fluffy chapter (read also: not at all) and it's unexpectedly serious for the tone of this story. Apologies for such a heavy topic, and I hope I wrote this out okay. In other news, for those of you who want to be able to contact me, I made a tumblr account to make things a little easier.  
> http://agraulisvanillae.tumblr.com/  
> Once I have some more time, I'll start setting up the stories on there too and maybe doing a little more. Thank you for your support!


	13. Horror Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe playing a scary game in the middle of the night with a bunch of animated skeletons wasn't your brightest idea.

You and Papyrus were pulling an all nighter, taking turns quizzing each other. It was only when both of you could recite the flashcards in your dreams, even after shuffling the deck and changing from the term side to the definition side.

 

“SO WE CLEARLY KNOW THESE BY HEART...” he began.

“Yep,” you agreed.

“...THEN IT WOULDN'T BE SLACKING OFF IF WE DID SOMETHING ELSE FOR AWHILE, RIGHT?” he finished hopefully. Immediately you assented.

“Noooo we're just gonna recharge for a bit is all,” you grinned, all for doing something other than rattling off the chemical properties of pectin.

Well, a break from the entire night despite this supposedly being an all nighter. A sidelong glance in his direction told you all you needed to know, and you both made an unspoken agreement not call the other out on what had been an obvious excuse just to hang out. It was fun to be around all of your friends at once, but sometimes you were more comfortable with just Papyrus. Especially as your friends started acting... weirder. You've still yet to figure out where Asgore got the idea that you were together.

You and Papyrus set up a new horror video game that you were psyched for, but you did have one awkward issue that you might have glossed over. You absolutely could not play scary games. You could brave out the scariest movies. You could watch video games.

You cannot. With all of your heart, play scary games yourself.

That being said, you weren't about to back down when it was you that suggested to play it. You'd been sketching as you leaned onto a pillow in his lap when he'd thrust the controller in your face.

“THEY GOT ME!!! ___, YOU MUST AVENGE THE GREAT PAPYRUS!!” he announced dramatically, one arm thrown over his face. You stared at the controller with wide eyes, before slowly sitting up without saying a word and clicking “Continue”.

You still had plenty of resources since Papyrus hadn't had a chance to use up the healing items before he'd been overcome with demons, and taking a deep therapeutic breath, you cautiously edged along. It was okay for the start because you'd been watching the game between each detail you sketched onto paper, and you expected the sudden influx of demon attacks. Once you cleared the area though, your character got pulled into a mirror and you froze in fear, “Oh, no way.”

The hallway in the mirror world was gray and oozing with contrasting scarlet blood. The games hallways emitted a squelching sound as your character edged along. A music box melody of “Can't Take my Eyes off of You” played brokenly and you were NOT charmed. In fact, as you approached the door that the shuffling and slurping sounds were coming from, you stopped. 

“Oh my gosh, please stop, can we not?! They sound like, oh hell no...” you were unable to stop the flow of babble as you got extra nervous and tense, your leg muscles clenching together from the tension and unconsciously shrinking back into the couch. “Oh my gosh, they're totally going to jumpscare aren't they? This is going to be an instant kill mistake, I'm gonna just go elsewhere 'cuz I didn't explor-”

You turned your character around when a pair of hands grabbed your shoulders in REAL LIFE and shouted “RAH!!!”

You shrieked and jumped into place, pulling the controller tight to your chest and causing the character to spazz out like they were having a stroke. The cut scene triggered and the door opened to show the demon tonguing the open stomach cavity of a corpse before charging up into the screen to latch on the character startling you again. Feeling like you were being attacked on all sides, you promptly burst into tears and accidentally threw the controller in a terrified flail.

Sans chuckled, crowing “heh, did i getcha?”

He was pleased with the success of his sneak attack until he actually saw your face as you were trying desperately to shove your tears back into your eye sockets, “o-oh, whoops. i really did get ya.”

“WH-WHAT THE HECK SANS!! THAT EVEN FREAKED ME OUT!” Papyrus yelled, sounding less 'freaked out' and more annoyed. The character on the screen forgotten, was killed pretty quickly by the pursuing demon, and the Game Over screen displayed.

You mumbled automatically, “Imokay” trying not to hiccup mid-syllable. You were still trying to get a hold of yourself after your miniature heart attack, “I'm not crying, I just have a really strong defensive reaction...”

Papyrus wrapped his arms around your trembling form for lack of some way to make you feel better, strategically placing the controller where it wouldn't be thrown again.

“of tears?” Sans asked, looking only a little apologetic. He was starting to snicker again. 

“Yuh huh,” you replied. Your voice was all thick sounding. “They're totally fake.” You buried your hands in your face and shook with an odd squeaking noise. For a second, you worried both of the skeleton brothers until you leaned back and wiped more at your face, still giggling manically.

“right,” Sans responded with a raised eyebrow, but since you didn't seem totally traumatized, he went along with your lie. “hey, can i tell grillby? i got you to jump out of your skin. that has to count for something.”

“REALLY SANS. REALLY,” Papyrus gave him a severe and incredulous look. He rubbed your back a little, and you leaned into the touch automatically.

“You're an ass, and go for it,” you said quickly, determined to be 'cool' with it before the mortified part of your brain could scramble forward and shut you down. 

“sweet. I'm off to grillby's,” with that, Sans was out in a blip.

You snorted then hiccuped again, and sunk further into Papyrus. “God, I'm such a wimp.”

“A WIMP?” Papyrus questioned, looking down over you.

“I did the same thing when I was 12 with one of those prank jumpscare videos,” you confessed. “And, uh, I've actually been really scared of playing scary games. Its the pressure of staying alive, y'know?”

“BUT WAIT! YOU WERE PLAYING A SCARY GAME!” Papyrus pointed out.

“Yeah, and I just about pissed myself playing,” you laughed shakily. Your sniffles and tears were finally starting to die down, but you still felt bad for your extreme reaction. Also, you couldn't stop hiccuping.

“YOU WERE FACING YOUR FEAR!” he hugged you harder. “THAT'S NOT WIMPY AND I'LL CALL UNDYNE TO PROVE IT!”

“Please don't,” you begged. “Lets just keep playing the game.”

“YOU STILL WANT TO PLAY?” he was impressed by your commitment to the game. “WOWIE! YOU REALLY ARE FACING YOUR FEARS!”

However, you were very much not committed at all to another hardcore jumpscare. You scrambled through another hiccup, “Nonono-hic!-nonono you play it, I'm just wanna watch. Please?”

“WE CAN PLAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT,” he offered. “WE HAVE A GAME WITH AN ANT ARMY WHERE YOU MAKE MORE ANTS AND FIND KNICK KNA-”

“Nooo, I still wanna see what happens next,” you insisted. You'd probably explain your odd horror complex eventually, but you were content with draping yourself over the pillow in his lap like a cat and watching Papyrus open the creepy door and triggering the scene again. He'd barely cleared the level before you faded out, and another level before he realized you were snoozing.

“WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU?” he huffed, not really serious. He placed his hand across your head and brushed across your hair gently, tracing across your hairline and then the part in your hair. You leaned into the touch sleepily, suddenly curling deeper into his side. “YOU'RE AWAKE?”

“Meh...” you mumbled. He wasn't sure that really qualified as an affirmative, but then you continued talking, “Hey Puppy? I kinda wanted to talk to you...”

“ABOUT WHAT?” he could feel the pace of his soul pick up a little in a sudden jump of nervousness.

“Well... your cooking... that is... I kinda wanted to cook with you, because... your c-cooking c-could use some work...” your mumbling sunk to an all time low, and your tongue tripped over the hard “c” sounds.

“OH,” Papyrus barely caught the last part, and felt a strange mixture of disappointment and relief. “THAT'S OKAY I ALREADY KNOW.”

“When?” you asked, sitting up suddenly. Last time you tried his spaghetti, it was still pretty al dente and he only recently started laying off the glitter.

“SINCE OUR TEACHER BANNED MTT GLITTER FROM THE LABORATORY,” Papyrus answered guiltily. “I'M ALSO TO AVOID SMASHING VEGETABLES EVEN IF I CLEAN IT UP AFTER.”

“Sorry, I should've told you sooner...” you responded guiltily. After all, its not like you helped him by avoiding the truth. You sunk back into the pillow. “Would you maybe want to cook with me anyways?”

“WHA- OF COURSE!!! WE ALREADY STUDY COOKING TOGETHER, TO PUT OUR NEWFOUND KNOWLEDGE INTO PRACTICE IS ONLY NATURAL!!!” Papyrus yelled, flustered. You jumped in place, and started giggling helplessly at his indignant tone, burying your face further into the pillow. You were relieved that telling the Papyrus the truth had gone so smoothly. You hoped Sans was happy.

~

Back at Grillby's, Sans face blanked for a second. Grillby looked at him, silently questioning.

“ah, no it's nothing. just... got the really strange impulse to facepalm,” he mused.

“...” Grillby looked bemused.

“what?”

~

“So... do you wanna get some groceries at some point?” you said, “I need to get some food soon anyway.” You flipped onto your back to stare up at the television screen again, and he started playing the game again.

“YES, I SHOULD STOCK UP TOO,” he actually had enough pasta for at least a week. “HOW DO YOU GET FOOD WITHOUT A CAR ANYWAY?”

“Bus system, carrying food is actually more of a problem then buying it,” you yawned, feeling yourself drift off slowly again.

“I CAN HELP WITH THAT, Y'KNOW,” he huffed. “WERE YOU DOING THAT EVEN WHILE YOU WERE INJURED?!”

“...” your breathing evened out with a soft sigh. “... may...be...”

“ARE YOU REALLY THAT STUBBORN?”

“Hmm...”

“YOU'RE FALLING ASLEEP AGAIN AREN'T YOU?”

Not even the screams, moans, and cackles from the video game kept you from fading out. He saved the game and gathered you up to carry you to his room to get a proper rest. This time it was somewhat easier to tuck you in, but then as he'd tried to put you down, he'd realized you'd wrapped your arms around his arm and held tight. 

It really seemed impossible to just wake you up. Gently prying you off proved ineffective and as warmth radiated from your body, he quickly gave up and allowed himself to be captured. Yawning as he climbed into his cool race car bed, Papyrus used one of his attacks to bump down the light switch and focused on going to sleep. 

You woke up very early in the morning, technically still dark. In a sleepy haze, you barely registered being curled up against bones, and you blinked a few times to orient yourself with your surroundings. You thought maybe you were asleep on Papyrus in the living room still, but no, it was way too comfortable with Papyrus snoozing next to you. As your vision improved in the dark, you faintly recognized his room. You had been fast asleep in his bed with Papyrus halfway curled around you. The pillow you ended up sharing was partially propped by one of his arms stretched out beneath it.

You'd been pressed against his chest and he'd draped an arm over your waist with his hand curled loosely across the back of your shirt. You'd tangled a leg across one of his and leaned into him in your sleep. Carefully, you removed your leg from across his, feeling the rush of blood up to your face. Maybe it wasn't such a shock that Asgore thought you two were together, seeing as you apparently fall asleep here more often than your own bed these days. You considered your position carefully, and found that it'd be difficult to move without waking Papyrus up. 

Regardless, you weren't particularly motivated to get up just to disprove the notion. You could vaguely recall your dream of repeating the horror game, except the demons were after you personally. Most of it had already faded away, but you could still remember was something digging, twisting, and ripping... dredging up the images that made you shiver involuntarily. It was reassuring for Papyrus to simply be there, and even if he might not have meant to pull you so close in his sleep, his presence felt protective.

Half asleep, you touched his forearm lightly, and then rubbed slow circles into the bone. He shifted in his sleep, and you stopped as you were pulled to him more closely. An overwhelming feeling of tenderness swelled deep in your chest and you pressed your face in the crook of his neck, tucked under his chin. Maybe it was okay to fall back asleep like this, just for now, you thought hazily.

Waking up an hour later in the morning, Papyrus realized that he was even more tightly captured than he started out in the night, your leg hooked back over his femur and your arms wrapped across his chest. Your shirt rode up and twisted to the point that your bra was visible, and your hair was partly caught in your mouth. You radiated a tranquil warmth and softness in the morning light, your breathing even and soothing. Trying very hard not to look down more than strictly necessary, he tugged your shirt straight. He brushed your hair out of your face and touched your cheek gingerly before he realized what he was doing. 

Feeling his soul thrum irregularly and breaking out into a sweat, he managed to nab his phone from his nightstand and sent out an SOS-

-THESE ARE NOT FRIEND FEELINGS UNDYNE HELP

The returning text was understandably grumpy,

-2 erly in the morn 4 ths pap  
-go th fuk t sleep

-UNDYNE I AM SCREAMING INTERNALLY!!! HOW DOES ONE CONFESS THEIR FEELINGS?!!

Undyne must have been typing at the speed of light, because her garbled response appeared almost instantaneously-

-DFO NOT CONFDES 1S TYHINGF IN HE MOIRN  
-COMTASLK 2 ME

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Morning panic Undyne text translation: “DO NOT CONFESS 1ST THING IN THE MORN. COME TALK TO ME”. I feel like Papyrus doesn't do a whole lot of beating around the bush once he figures it out. Heh, this might be the most in-character Papyrus has been all story. I would've had this out sooner, but exams came first. Shockingly, the "Sans Studies" thing actually helped. By the way, this just started out with Sans being a bully and then morphed out of control. I don't even... but I hope you enjoyed how friggin' long this got!!!


	14. Bonus Chapter: Enter Underfell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Underfell escaped Underground and UF!Papyrus met Reader-chan?
> 
> Well obviously, there's going to be more fluff.

Surrounded by a lingering sweet odor, and the cool spring air, you were stationed at an outdoor bake sale for a non-profit animal shelter. Your customers today seemed to be ruder than usual. You were just through staring down one man with your best deadpan stare before he finally walked away, leaving you to sigh with disgruntlement. You fiddled with a rubix cube mindlessly, uninterested in the puzzle but too bored to do nothing. It was too nice a day for this shit. The skies were clear, birds were singing, and you blinked with some confusion as someone dressed like they just walked out from the depths of hell approached.

Hm.

Hot topic could probably take notes. Your customer was a skeleton taller than you were, with one eye socket scarred up pretty well, and a tight black and red costume. You were almost positive it was a costume, despite the parts of it that appeared like it could hold up against a hit or two such as the shoulder pads. The fact that a monster approached a human to begin with was... unusual, to say the least. Monsters coming from an underground did not approach humans, especially when a human child could dust most of them with just a little intent. The fact that this one walked around like he owned the place either meant that he was pretty powerful, or he was pretty good at faking it.

You both studied each other, regarding the other with suspicion. 

“Wanna buy some bread? All proceeds go to no-kill shelters,” the sign said as much, but five minutes of staring was getting awkward. Besides, until this guy walked away, you doubted human customers were going to show up. Despite the clear disadvantage monsters were at, people simply didn't know how to act when one showed up. Not entirely unreasonable, startling monsters was bound to get someone whapped in the face, intentionally or no.

“IT SMELLS LIKE IT IS STORE BOUGHT,” he sniffed haughtily. Despite his words, he still seemed to be staring intently at the table.

“I think your nasal cavities stuffed up. I suggest Cleritan for those allergies,” you smirked. “I made everything on this table. French bread, sourdough bread, cheesecake, peach and apple crisps- everything. There are samples underneath the wrapped plate right here.” You tapped the tray to punctuate your words.

“WHY WOULD YOU SUPPORT A NO-KILL SHELTER?” your skeletal customer nabbed a small piece of sourdough bread from the sample plate and nibbled delicately.

“I want to see animals get a chance to live well. They're all good pets, they just need a chance,” you replied, then reluctantly added with the awareness your next words were essentially pandering to your monster customer, “A new lease on life, as it were.”

Sadly for you, watching the skeleton eat did not bring any clarity as to how a skeleton would eat to begin with. It was worth a shot though, and after you redirected your attention to the puzzle at hand. It was starting to look even more messed up than it had to begin with, only an L shaped corner completed and everything else jumbled up. You were starting to wish you brought a book instead.

“OH FOR THE LOVE OF- GIVE THAT!” the skeleton snatched the cube from your hands and twisted away furiously.

“Hey!” you protested. That was your boring pointless activity! In about 5 minutes, he slams it down on the table, rattling the mason jar cakes in place. It was totally complete, and the skeleton looked quite satisfied with the results.

“NYEH HEH HEH! YOUR WORTHLESS PUZZLES ARE NO MATCH FOR THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS!” he preened, one hand on a semi-exposed hipbone and examining his distal phalanges like he had nails.

It was possibly the funniest thing you'd seen, and slowly and deliberately you took the cube back while the great and terrible Papyrus was distracted and scrambled it all over again. You set it down again, and watched expectantly. He glared at you, and grabbed it again to re-solve.

He chucked the cube back into your hands, completed once again. Allowing a slow mischievous grin to form, you scrambled the cube again. He glared daggers as you maintained eye contact.

“STOP. MAKING. ME. SOLVE. THE SAME DAMN PUZZLE!!!” He roared. Not that it stopped him from clicking away, the poor little plastic cube colors getting all torn up by the force of his ire. You giggled as the cube was thrown back at you. As much as Papyrus put up a fuss over the matter, there was a glint to his untouched eye that seemed suspiciously like amusement.

“Make me,” you taunted, and begun to twist the colors out of shape again.

“I'LL BUY A LOAF OF BREAD,” he responded, clutching your hands still on the cube sharply. You raised your eyebrows.

“Are you bribing me?”

“THERE'S A MONSTER THAT RESPONDS POSITIVELY TO SUCH TACTICS. I SEE NO REASON WHY A NUISANCE SHOULD RESPOND DIFFERENTLY,” he explained. 

“I'm a nuisance with high standards,” you huffed teasingly, “You're going to have to do better than that.”

He narrowed his eyes at you, and you wondered what you said wrong. Then-

“I'LL TAKE THE WHOLE TABLE,” he declared, and your eyes went wide. “ON THE CONDITION THAT I KEEP YOUR FOOLISH PUZZLE.”

“Do- do you even need to eat that much food?” you said uncertainly.

“NO,”

“And this really isn't about the cause,” you turned your head to the side, your own eyes meeting his and narrowing a little with skepticism.

“I'M NOT AGAINST YOUR CAUSE,” he responded simply.

An awkward pause reigned. Papyrus' cheekbones turned a blood orange color and you chewed on your lip absently considering. “Is this 'cuz of the cube? I mean, if it really bothers you, you can just walk away.”

Another long pregnant silence. Finally, your skeletal visitor burst out-

“AND LEAVE YOU UNSUPERVISED?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? HUMAN, ARE YOU AWARE OF THE DANGER OF MANAGING A BUSINESS ALONE? YOU COULD BE ROBBED! KILLED! HAVE YOU NO SURVIVAL INSTINCT?!”

You cringed with your hands held up in a “relax” gesture, but he ranted on, wringing his hands.

“SO WHAT IF YOU REMIND ME OF ANOTHER FOOLISH HUMAN, AND I THOUGHT THAT MAYBE IF I BOUGHT ALL OF YOUR GOODS YOU WOULD SAFELY RETURN HOME BUT NO! YOU HAVE TO QUESTION THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS! IT'S NOT LIKE I HAVE TO C-CARE! NYEH!” Papyrus stopped, panting as the blood orange flush ran through his entire face even across his scar.

“You done?” you asked, now even more amused than ever.

“YES,” he grunted.

You reached over the table and clasped both of his hands over the rubix cube, “Thanks, for worrying. I'm no good at this kind of puzzle anyway. I prefer jigsaws.” You settled back into the chair. “Seriously though, don't go buying a bunch of food you're not going to eat. I worked hard on that y'know.”

He muttered something that sounded a lot like “WHO SAYS I'M NOT GOING TO EAT IT?” And with that, he dug into his pockets for cash and slammed it punishingly on the table.

Unable to resist, you teased him even as you began averting eye contact, “I thought it smelled like it was store bought?” You fingered your shirt collar hesitantly, resisting an incoming flush.

“LET IT NEVER BE SAID THAT THE GREAT AND PAPYRUS DOES NOT RECOGNIZE DECENT COOKING,” he managed to respond haughtily. “NOW ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE MY DONATION OR NOT?”

Instead of just giving everything to him individually, you packed it all in the giant paper bags you originally transported the goods in carefully. Looking at everything packed up just because of one monster, you finally buried your head in your shirt for a brief moment to let the shyness pass before you sat up and hauled the food into his arms.

“Ah, I suppose I should really thank you, great... Papyrus?” you struggled to recall the exact phrase he used.

''IT'S THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, THOUGH FOR THE SAKE OF BREVITY I SUPPOSE I CAN ALLOW YOU TO CALL ME PAPYRUS,” he announced magnanimously. You were bent over folding up the table when the ill natured customer from earlier returned.

“Your asking price is ridiculous, but I don't have much better... to choose..?” he stared at Papyrus, with the many bags of baked goods and then his gaze switched to your butt before you leaned back on your feet to turn and look at him. The scarred skeleton scowled openly, and realizing that you sought to end the confrontation before it began,

“I'm sorry sir, the bake sale just ended-”

“THE FEMALE HUMAN IS NO LONGER OBLIGATED TO DEAL WITH YOUR KIND. LEAVE, OR I WILL END YOU,” he growled. The awful customer turned and fled immediately.

“Whoa calm down!” you soothed, softly putting a hand on his humerus to get redirect his attention. “It's okay Papyrus.”

“WHERE DO YOU LIVE?” he demanded suddenly, looking at your hand on his arm closely. “I SHALL ESCORT YOU TO SAFETY.”

“No seriously, I'm okay,” you told him, hurriedly. “Shitty customers aren't exactly a threat. The average person is actually quite nice. I'll be fine getting home.”

“NONSENSE. YOU'RE CARRYING THE FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR,” Papyrus' movements were rather restricted carrying so many bags, but he managed to halfway fold his arms and tap his foot anyways. “ENOUGH MONEY TO MAKE YOU AN EASY TARGET.”

Try as you might, you could not convince this odd new friend that the world was not out to get you. Walking with the sale supplies in hand, your next burning question was, “Was it really that rough underground..?”

“IN A WORLD LIKE OURS, IT IS KILL OR BE KILLED,” he responded, “ALMOST ADEQUATE TRAINING FOR ABOVE GROUND. ALMOST.”

You watched the ground, as you mumbled softly, “I'm sorry how bad it's been. And, I'm sorry for maybe how I acted before. It's hard to know how to act when you've never seen a monster before...”

For the first time, Papyrus' loud words held a softer tone, “NO ONE UNDERGROUND WAS PREPARED FOR SUCH A COMPLEX ASSORTMENT OF HUMANS. RUTHLESS... MERCIFUL... PREDATORY... EVEN HEARTBREAKINGLY KIND. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THE GOODNESS IN HUMANITY SHOULD BE PROTECTED WHENEVER FOUND.”

Your breath hitched, and you glanced surreptitiously to his face. He refused to look you in the eye, but you were able to read the sincerity in his words. After a few more minutes, you finally arrived at your apartment and you managed to shove the sale stuff inside before turning back to your new... friend, maybe?

“Thank you for helping me, Papyrus,” you smiled at him. “It was almost like having a white knight from the stories.”

Before you could think about it, you leaned up on tiptoe and kissed his cheekbone, then realized what you did. You immediately pulled your shirt up to your face and turned to retreat inside.

“I-IT'S NOT LIKE THIS WAS A DIFFICULT TASK FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS!” he coughed. In a daze, Papyrus turned to return home. Pulling out a slice of sourdough bread to gnaw, thinking how different the Underground could have been if the Royal Guard were real knights. Before, instigating the change would have been near-impossible, but with Frisk's example... perhaps he could talk to Undyne about it later.

Now to figure out what to do with so much damn food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very cliffhanger-y place for me to insert a Bonus chapter I know, but school has it out for my head at the moment. My apologies! I figured a what-if alternate was better than nothing, and I'd been playing with the idea of peppering the fic with alternate scenes that's played out in my head for awhile.  
> If you're wondering, I'm planning on an Underswap version too. Either way I'll try not to make this a frequent thing. I just want the time to sit and write out what happens next when I'm not sleeping like someone slipped Sans a sedative.


	15. Awkward Times for All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you just can't avoid a weird day.

It was really awkward waking up once daylight began filtering through the room. By awkward, you meant that your leg was hooked across your friend's bony legs while Papyrus acted really weirdly.

And by really weird, you mean that everything seemed to escalate from the moment you woke up.

You were nuzzling sleepily into his side at first, mostly asleep until you suddenly needed to stretch. The act of doing so woke you up enough to retract your limbs wrapped around Papyrus and sit up. “Er, Mornin' Puppy.”

Papyrus had tensed up when you stretched against him, and his eyes locked on his cell phones screen. At your sheepish greeting though, he snapped out of mental paralysis and into Operation: Don't-Act-Like-You-Totally-Have-Non-Friend-Feelings. Obviously, the name was a work in progress.

“AH K-K-KITTY! GOOD MORNING SUPER COOL FRIEND WHICH I FELL ASLEEP WITH PLATONICALLY LAST NIGHT AND THEN WOKE UP WITH NON- I MEAN, WOKE UP WITH ROM- I MEAN!!! PERSON!!! THAT!!! I!!! LIKE LOTS?!!” He stuttered with uncharacteristic uncertainty and sweated profusely. You stared at him with some measure of confusion and alarm as he seemed extremely uncomfortable to be sitting next to you at that moment.

“I-” you began to say.

“OKAY WELL I'LL SEE YOU IN CLASS IN A FEW DAYS AT THE TIME IN WHICH WE TRADITIONALLY HAVE CLASS UNLESS YOU FALL ILLORSOMETHINGHORRIBLEHAPPENSWHICHTHEGREATPAPYRUSASASUPERCOOLGUYTOTALLYUNDERSTANDSIFTHATWERETOHAPPENBUTWISHESTOSEEYOUTHENANYWAYOKAYBYE!!!!” Papyrus babbled at the speed and volume of The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku song set at twice as fast. Before you could even process it, let alone get a word in edgewise, he sailed out his window.

You smacked both of your hands over your mouth, wide awake and rushed over to the window to see him land with obvious practice.

“nailed it bro,” you could hear Sans calling from his room in the other window.

“NYEH HEH HEH!!!” Papyrus raced off, still gloating proudly at his brother's praise. You shook your head in absolute confusion, stepping back to realize that you were standing in gless.

“Ow!” you weren't even sure why the glass shattered on the inside, but at least Papyrus was all right... well, maybe. His hasty retreat was too much for you to handle this early in the morning. And you really needed to get off the broken glass on the carpet, before you hurt yourself worse and started bleeding all over his room. You turned to slowly maneuver through the shattered pieces when Sans popped into existence in the room with a broom and dust pan, nearly making you lose your balance from surprise.

“Holy- SANS!!! Don't just show up like that when I'm standing in broken glass, geez!” You shouted with some alarm.

“honestly forgot you were still here. not that he doesn't do that once in awhile, but m i n d e x p l a i n i n g w h y p a p y r u s i s j u m p i n g o u t t h e w i n d o w?” Sans hands you the broom and you comply automatically, sweeping up the glass into the dustpan he held in place. His eyesockets were dark, and the odd intonation of his question made you feel the weight of his words more than hear them. You didn't realize either of the brothers were capable of being grumpy, let alone seriously irritated, but you glanced up at him uncertainly. 

“Uh, well, when I woke up...” you wondered how much to tell him, and then figured that since nothing happened, it didn't qualify as secret worthy. “We were both asleep in his bed. Well, I was asleep. I think Papyrus just woke up or something.”

He didn't look particularly satisfied with your answer, but the lights reluctantly returned to his eye sockets. This morning was particularly strange, both brothers were acting like you and Papyrus had sex that night or something scandalous like that. Huh, now that you think of it-

“Waiiit how do monsters even have sex?” you muttered more to yourself than anything else, but Sans froze nonetheless. You realized too late that your 'foot in mouth syndrome' caught up once more. Silence ruled the room, both of you too flummoxed by the accidental change in subject and you could've sworn your face was burning hotter with each passing second.

“that's a rhetorical question...” Sans doesn't have a wide range of expressions he could make with a permagrin, but he successfully mimicked the deer caught in headlights look. “right?”

Equally embarrassed, you admitted, “I actually don't know. I uh. Really don't.” You cringed as you realize the piece of glass was still slanted a little bit through your heel, and you sat down to carefully extract it from the injury. Seeing you examine the slow swell of blood, Sans shook his skull.

“i'm not exactly the right mind, for any of this, heh,” Sans joked nervously, “i'm a bit of numbskull. here, i've got a shortcut to someone who can help you out.” He held out a hand to help you up.

“This isn't a prank through space and time is it?” you regarded the helping hand suspiciously.

“nope,” he reassured you. You took his hand and nearly snatched your hand away in shock when a loud farting noise blew out from his palm. “but it is a whoopie cushion prank.”

You groaned, and with Sans smiling as the corners of his eyes pushed up mischievously, you both suddenly twisted unceremoniously through space and you felt yourself essentially freefall into Toriel's kitchen floor. 

“OW!” you yelped as you accidentally scrambled onto your feet and injury in shock. Toriel was up and cooking breakfast with some unidentifiable savory smell simmering from her skillet. She turned around to regard the two of you without any particular surprise in her expression.

“Oh Sans, good morning!” Toriel greeted cheerfully. “What brings you here so early?”

“nothin' much, just ____ needing a quick patch. also ____, redirect all questions to tori,” Sans quickly blipped out again, leaving both of you to stare flabbergasted in his wake.

“Do you have a bandaid?” you asked sheepishly.

“No need for a bandaid my child, allow me to heal you,” Toriel summoned her magic which wrapped across you warmly, and you felt the laceration itch as it began to mend at an accelerated rate.

“Cool!” You gawked at your quickly mended heel. The swelling flattened out and the soreness seemed to fade. “How many monsters can do that?”

She smiled maternally at your fascination, “A few here and there. Have you been asking a lot of questions this morning? I'm not sure I've ever seen Sans move his bones so quickly.” she laughed and you shrunk in your seat awkwardly.

“Erm... not a lot. Just about how monsters have sex,”

“Oh!” Toriel began giggling. “That explains much, Sans doesn't say so, but he certainly has some trouble broaching the matter. You should have seen how he got when Papyrus got old enough to ask..! Well, not that I could. He brought his brother to the door to the ruins where I lived for a time, and asked me to explain. I couldn't see what he was doing, but it sounded like he was muttering knock knock jokes to tune out the lesson the whole time.”

You started laughing too, if only because of the idea of Sans getting so flustered. It seemed uncharacteristic since he was always so chill. 

“However, I can see maybe why it would be important for you to learn,” Toriel fixed her kindly gaze upon yours. “After all, monsters do come in such a great variety of appearances. May I show you something? It may feel funny at first~” She reached forward, originally appearing to grasp air but with a sense of psychic vulnerability, a light purple heart shape appeared in her paws. You examined this new thing with trepidation, uncomfortable with your sense of self free-floating, detached from your physical being.

“This is your soul, the culmination of your being. Much like this, other humans also possess souls as well as monsters. This allows monster of all different walks of life to be able to bond in such a way humans may consider sex. This is not the only way for the soul to be summoned, as for monsters the soul is representative in battle as well. Think of monsters less as physical beings, and more magical. In this situation you would like to know about, the soul is the lock for procreation, but intent is the key,” Toriel explained. You were examining your soul carefully, tracing the outline as she spoke.

“Does that mean you can't get pregnant on accident? Like you have to intend to get pregnant?” you asked curiously.

“Oh dear, no! Is that a possibility among humans?” Toriel was shocked and concerned.

“Yes! Abstinence education gets pushed into schools to try and prevent teenage pregnancy,” your soul disappeared as you spoke, and you wondered about the color. “Adults have trouble with it as well.”

“Will you talk to Frisk about human procreation soon? I'm afraid I'm sorely unprepared for such an issue. This seems very important.” Normally, you wouldn't volunteer to talk to anyone's children about such a topic. However, Toriel was asking you and considering the way Frisk flirted with everyone, you figured you could give it a shot.

“Does Frisk know about monster sex?” you asked.

“Naturally, they're old enough that they should know,” she affirmed.

“I can talk to them soon. Does the soul have a sense of... touch?” you struggled to name the idea correctly.

“Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, that the soul is the core of your feelings, or so it is with monsters. It affects your ability to defend yourself, your ability to attack, and even your sense of well being. So using your soul to bond is...” she breathed deeply, lost in thought with a small blush “It is very intense.”

You feel like asking any more may become intrusive, and nod. “Thank you for explaining. I'd like to talk to you first, that way I don't tell Frisk anything you might not agree with...”

~

Meanwhile, Papyrus sat in Undyne and Alphys' shared kitchen, recounting everything in the last 24 hours or so, with Undyne laughing hysterically and Alphys struggling to reign in some control of the situation. “P-papyrus! You're not supposed to just run away as soon as she looks at you!”

“I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY!!! UNDYNE SAID NOT TO CONFESS FIRST THING IN THE MORNING?!” Papyrus lamented loudly, flustered with the entire situation.

“You didn't have to literally jump out a window to get away from her either, you nerd!” Undyne choked out, grinning ear to ear. “I have to say though, this tops anything you and I've done Alphy!” She ribbed at Alphys.

“R-r-right, don't d-d-do what we did! F-first of all!” Alphys tried to get her words in order and failed, her tongue twisting over the individual consonant sounds.

“SO DON'T HAVE FRISK DELIVER MY LETTERS,” Papyrus wrote down on a notepad he seemed to pull from nowhere. “GOT IT!”

“Well, timing might help too! Like NOT FIRST THING IN THE MORNING!” Undyne yelled. “And try not to text first thing in the morning too!”

“Y-you might want to consider giving her gifts to raise her affection stat? Or m-maybe roleplay c-could help?”

“NGAHH wait!!!” Undyne stopped the wave after wave of questionable dating advice. “Do we even know if she's into dudes?”

The whole kitchen fell silent. “L-let me ask Amber-” Alphys offered.

Papyrus who had been scritching away at his notepad, looked uneasy, “WOWIE, THIS IS A LOT MORE COMPLEX THAN I THOUGHT...”

“P-pansexual!” Alphys cheered. “The ship will sail!!!”

“YES! YOU NEED TO CONFESS WITH THE FULL FORCE OF YOUR PASSION!” Undyne roared triumphantly. 

“sup,” Sans cracked into existence without warning, and Alphys squeaked as she fell off her chair. “i could almost hear you through the shortcut if it wasn't for the lack of ears. what'd i miss?”

“This nerds found himself a girrrrlfriend!” Undyne sang, wrapping a muscular arm around Papyrus to pull him down in a rough noogie. “Fuhuhuhu!”

“W-well not exactly! We still d-don't know how ____ feels yet...” Alphys corrected. 

“hold up,” Sans said, looking at them skeptically. “papy, have you said anything yet? Maybe you should hang back for a little bit.”

“WHY?” Papyrus questioned, but he nodded anyways. His brother was a lazybones, but he knew how to read a crowd. “WHAT IS IT?”

“well... nothin' yet,” Regardless, Sans was reluctant to pass judgment yet. They could see that on his face. “just... try not to rush into this headlong, okay?” He grinned a little bit to try and lighten the mood, “i just don't wanna see you crush-ed, ya?”

“UURGHH YOUR PUNS GET WORSE EVERY DAY SANS...” Papyrus groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WISH I got to edit this chapter more, but at least its mostly coherent. Thank you all for your support even with the filler chapter, and for those of you who don't read comments sections, I'll be adding at least a 3 part for UF!Papyrus and another for US!Papyrus. I have a much neglected tumblr for those who would like to chat or simply track me on there, agraulisvanillae.


	16. Doodling Temmies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Papyrus accidentally invoke the presence of tEm. How hasn't this happened sooner anyway..?

During class a week later, you got even more bored than usual. You started doodling on your hand, first drawing out what you imagined the bones underneath your flesh would look like, then you started adding extra touches. Winding vines and flowers wrapped across the long bones in your palm and bloomed across your knuckles. You started adding other touches too like peace symbols, stars, and before you knew it, your entire left hand was a cheerful rainbow mess with orange and green highlighter prevalent from the flowers.

It was warm enough for you to be wearing shorts and ankle socks, so next you started on your ankles and calves, drawing all the flowers you could think of. Broad sunflowers, delicate honeysuckle, tiny bell-shaped lily of the valley, eccentric passionflowers, all entwined with repetitive patterns that you decided mid-way would become a dream catcher across your kneecap. 

“____!!!” you heard Papyrus yell from across the hallway, and you flashed a quick smile in his direction before focusing again on carefully, carefully, carefully, working the web radially across the contours of your knee. “WOWIE! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON THAT?”

“I swear to god, this was only supposed to be my hand, but I got a little carried away...” you mumbled sheepishly. You were just finishing wrapping flower vines across the circle of the dream catcher while Papyrus looked on with increasing fascination. “Wanna help me? I kinda want to try getting both of my legs done before I have to leave for class.”

“SURE! NYEH HEH HEH YOUR LEGS WILL BE COOLEST IN TOWN WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS AS YOUR ASSISTANT!” he seized another orange highlighter, figures, and went to work on your bare ankle. You'd just been finishing the touches on your “thigh high sock” on the exposed leg below your shorts, coloring in three button shaped hearts and lacy touches before you started twitching a little from the tracing tingling across your tibia.

“Not so softly, that tickles!” you choked back a laugh. “What are you even drawing anyway?!”

Not unlike when you started drawing on your hand, Papyrus was drawing out the bones underneath your skin, but unlike the way you focused on the anatomical correctness of your drawing, he drew the bone with an exaggerated bow across your calf. The drawn bones looked overly slender and not necessarily strong enough to bear your weight and you thought maybe he was exaggerating how delicate you appeared. You couldn't restrain your wiggling when the highlighter dipped underneath your knee, and he grabbed your knee.

“KEEP STILL I'M CONCENTRATING!!!” he scolded, but there was something off about his expression as he did. He focused on that area again, but instead of just drawing the fibula he started sketching out a very rough looking puzzle slowly and deliberately. And way too softly.

“Ahhh that's tickling,” you whined. “How am I supposed to stay still?!”

“NYEHEHE JUST DON'T MOVE!” Papyrus was smirking openly now, and you bopped him with the green highlighter in indignation.

“You're doing this on purpose!!!” You accused, trying not to push the marker away and make him mess up. You did get a little revenge though, as you grabbed his free arm and started drawing across the ulna.

“HEY, WHAT-?!” he stopped his torturous movements to snatch his arm back but it was too late. You'd drawn a series of crudely drawn pink cherry blossoms that stood out against the white of his bone quite nicely. Papyrus mourned loudly, “NO!!! THIS ISN'T COOL AT ALL!!!”

You and Papyrus started flailing wildly at each other trying to draw random things, and at one point Papyrus accidentally swiped the highlighter across your tongue while you nearly shoved your marker into his eye socket. Both of you cringed for a second, with you trying to scrape off the highlighter with your teeth and spitting out dye while Papyrus began rubbing at his eye socket. 

“White fleehhgh!” you declared, still sticking your tongue out with a grimace.

“TRUCE?” he responded suspiciously. “NO JAPING?”

“No jehpes,” you agreed thickly.

He was covered in messy doodles, with half completed flowers and hastily scribbled “love” across the cheekbone while you had wildly drawn flames across your face and neck. More of it was random lines swiped across your faces and clothes though. 

“Blehhh...” you groaned.

Papyrus started chuckling at the frantic way you were trying to scrape coloring off your tongue and you turned to give him a glare only to laugh at the ridiculous almost 'stache across his teeth. Before you knew it, you were both laughing hard enough for your sides to hurt and you darted inside a bathroom to get some paper towels with water to try and wipe off the damage.

“s-s-so CUTE!!” 

“Huh?” you both look up from your cleaning to see a little humanoid cat vibrating intensely.

“humans TOO CUTE!!!” it staggered forward and you looked to Papyrus with concern.

“OH THAT'S JUST ONE OF THE TEMMIES. THERE'S A WHOLE VILLAGE OF THEM FROM THE UNDERGROUND, BUT THEY'RE ALLERGIC TO HUMANS APPARENTLY,” he explained.

“Oh, okay. So-AGHH!” you were knocked over by Temmie rocketing forward in a wild attempt to pet you.

“HOIVES!” she yelped, “i'm TEMMIY!!!”

You somehow got the impression that she misspelled her name, but the mistake was forgivable considering the angry red rash that blew up across the little monster. You almost dropped her in a panic, but Temmie clung tenaciously, “Ack! What do I do?! She's breaking out?!!”

“THEY USUALLY GO AWAY WITH SOME TEM FLAKES, BUT I DON'T HAVE ANY?!” Papyrus told you, also panicking in response.

“I don't even known what that is?!” you held your arms out helplessly, while the itchy little Temmie clung to your neck for dear life, extending one arm impossibly long just to pat your head.

“ITS OKAY I'VE GOT THIS!” Papyrus flexed his non-existent muscles, and suddenly a shadow passes over Temmie's face. A deep voice resonates behind you,

“Ohhhh a flex-off? I won't lose tho ; )” You whip around to furrow your eyebrows in absolute confusion at the winking seahorse. You looked between him and Papyrus flexing, not even sure what's going on anymore.

“Um...”

“n-no! muscls are not CUTE!!! *dies*” Temmie peels off of your neck with X's over her eyes and takes off the second she hits the ground. You're left with the feeling of being in a live action cartoon as Papyrus and the seahorse flex off.

You soon had an idea what to do while Papyrus and the seahorse was flexing off and driving Temmie away. You dug the song up on Booptube from your laptop you had in your backpack:

“I'm too sexy for my love, too sexy for my love, loves going to leave me~!” the singer droned out, as you set your laptop to record video and adjusted it on your lap to face the monsters.

“Ohhh! ; )” the seahorse lit up with a delighted wink. 

You shoved a fist to your mouth to stifle your giggling. Temmie was officially nowhere to be seen, but the two monsters were so caught up with the music, they were now posing just for the sake of posing. You probably shouldn't have been as surprised as you were to watch the seahorse flex away at the end of the song, and Papyrus waved as they floated away. You stopped the recording and sent it to Undyne, Alphys, and Amber under the file name “FlexOff2k16.mp4”. 

Alphys' response pinged soon after, and you could've sworn “It's missing Mettaton darling” was the robot himself having hacked Alphys' account, and not Alphys. Undyne wanted to know why Papyrus looked like he had half a 'stache. Rolling your eyes as you put away your phone, you poked him,

“Hey, this might be the first chance we get in awhile. After I finish class in the next hour or two, wanna cook tonight?”

“YES!!!” Papyrus yelled with more enthusiasm than normal, which meant almost anyone passing by stared intensely with varying levels of alarm and annoyance. You were used to it by now.

“Awesome!” you nudged him playfully, “I'll be sure to draw up a list while I'm supposed to be listening to lecture.”

“WHAT NO STOP FINDING EXCUSES NOT TO PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS!” Papyrus scolded angrily, “AS EXCITED AS YOU MUST BE TO COOK WITH A MASTER SPAGHETTORE SUCH AS MYSELF, YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER!”

You giggled mischievously, “You'd think. Well, I gotta go. I'll Bee-Arr-Bee, so later!”

Class couldn't pass fast enough, but soon you'd pulled up a list of pet projects that you wanted to show Papyrus. Admittedly, none of them were particularly normal or even good for every day cooking, but... you knew your way around the kitchen. After sitting back and watching everyone do their thing, you really wanted to show off, and so you decided you'd teach him more useful skills later.

You covertly checked recipes for help on the ingredient list, while your teacher scribbled odd chemical formulas on the board, and when you looked up you had the entire TCA cycle to catch up to. Why did you pick this major again?

~

“WOWIE, THIS IS A LONG LI- WAIT A SECOND. YOU BLATANTLY WROTE THIS UP DURING CLASS DIDN'T YOU?!!” Papyrus accused as you seized a shopping cart and whistled “innocently”.

“I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about,” you chuckled. “By the way, Mettaton wants to join the next flex off. Maybe we should make it a regular thing like Undyne's Booptube gaming channel.”

Somehow, he managed to roll his eyesockets at you. “I'M LOOKING THROUGH YOUR CLASS NOTES WHEN WE GET HOME AND YOU'RE GOING TO TELL ME WHAT'S ON THEM.”

You rolled through the produce aisle, and seized a bunch of limes. “Good luck reading through that shit. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to figure out what I wrote tomorrow morning when I don't remember what was supposed to be on that notebook. Hand me that cilantro will you? No- that's parsley. Cilantro's to your right.”

You thought it might've been a little odd to go grocery shopping with someone other than your parents, but you both fell into an easy banter as you grabbed different items. Papyrus looked increasingly perplexed.

“UH, KITTY? NOT THAT I QUESTION YOUR CULINARY KNOWLEDGE, BUT WHAT RECIPE DOES CREAM CHEESE, SHRIMP, AND YEAST HAVE IN COMMON?”

“They're different things,” you reassured. “We also need to pick up a little bit of rum from the liquor store. Trust me, I know exactly what to do.”

He thought about the way you coasted through cooking spaghetti, and then nodded seriously, “I TRUST YOU.”

You gave him a thumbs up, and a bright smile, “Great! This'll be really neat I promise.”

You bounced ahead to grab a box of graham crackers leaving Papyrus to trace the pattern of the puzzle piece bones down your calf and wonder how long he'll be able to play it cool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fortunately, this story is basically covered for Finals time, but the word count might drop a little. We'll start plotting again soon, I promise!


	17. Chemistry of Cooking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which the story actually earns its name.

You set out the groceries, organizing each “experiment” into their respective piles. You viewed each one with satisfaction, nodding to yourself as Papyrus asked,

“WHAT ARE WE MAKING HERE?” he asked. All you told him was to trust you, because you wanted to show him some neat tricks to demonstrate different principles of chemistry. It made you happy to see him follow your lead, and you finally began telling him your plan.

“Each one of these dishes are meant to demonstrate some pretty awesome things I've heard of, or made myself. This one we'll do first, and I think its probably the most normal thing,” you tore out the bricks of cream cheese from their packaging and and set them out to warm up as you got out the appropriate tools. “It's cheesecake, essentially a custard. The difficult part isn't to make a tasty cheesecake, but to make one without cracks.”

“IT HAS CHEESE?!” Papyrus already looked a little grossed out, and you gave him a rather rueful grin.

“Yeah, I was pretty weirded out when I was younger too. But you don't use cheese like from sandwiches or cheddar though. Its a mixture of cream cheese, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and whatever else a recipe calls for. First things first, we need to crush graham crackers and add melted butter and sugar to make the crust.”

“WAIT THERE ARE DISHES WHERE SMASHING IS ALLOWED?” his expression shifted from grossed out to somewhat confused and for the briefest moment, you realized this was probably a bad case of mixed signals from the teacher adamantly trying to teach him not to liquefy vegetables. Oh well, there was such a thing as controlled chaos after all.

You tossed a package of graham crackers to him with a smirk, “Encouraged even. The finer we can get that, the better the texture of the crust.”

“ALL RIGHT, LEAVE IT TO ME!” Papyrus immediately slammed the poor package against the counter, and you could already see the crackers were already halfway there. You gave a low whistle, shaking your head in amazement. It never ceased to surprise you just how strong he really was.

“I'll get the sugar and butter measured out,” Cooperating as you both were, it took a much less time to get the crust put together and cooking than it normally would for you alone, and preparing the cheesecake actually took less time than the oven heating up at the appropriate temperature. “Man, this is taking a lot less effort than it normally does. You're doing good too Puppy! I think we can actually go through these projects pretty quickly!”

Papyrus hummed in agreement, glowing with pride, “WHAT'S NEXT?”

“Hey, we're not done with this one yet buddy,” You got out a pan and foil, and wrapped the foil around the springform pan you were using. “So here's where things get tricky. Cheesecake acts like a custard, which means that when it's heated, the mixture expands right?”

“OKAY,” Papyrus said, encouraging you to continue. He watched your practiced movements, from pouring water into the larger pan, to carefully balancing it on the oven rack and then to set the foil wrapped springform pan full of uncooked cheesecake in the water. You nodded again, this time at the way the foil ended above the waterline.

“So we need to regulate the rate it expands, and then contracts as it cools down. Look at everything I've set here. The foil will keep water from getting into the springform pan, since the way the pan is made isn't water-proof. On the other hand, we need to use water because it'll absorb a lot of energy before rising in temperature, and slowly release that energy before the temperature drops.”

“W-WOWIE... YOU ACTUALLY KIND OF SOUND LIKE SANS OR ALPHYS,” he told you. You looked at him with no small measure of pride.

“I am a scientist after all, even if I haven't earned my degree yet,” you grinned. “Now we have the temperature up pretty high here, but we'll lower it after about 20 minutes or so. After that, we'll turn off the oven. However! We're leavin' that baby in there for about an hour or so to cool off. Then we'll take it out and leave it on the counter for an extra hour to cool off a little more, before we leave it in the fridge overnight to set. As long as the oven heats uniformly, we can regulate the drop of the temperature oh so carefully we'll get a perfect cheesecake.”

“THAT'S A REALLY LONG TIME. WHY ARE WE GOING TO SUCH LENGTHS IF IT TASTES THE SAME EITHER WAY?” Papyrus asked, a little perplexed at your quick excited explanation.

“Because we can,” you announced proudly. “Plus, I'm showing you how important it is to use temperature control. Next project now has to do with the idea of cooking! What do you think we do when we cook?”

You turned to the latest assortment of ingredients on the counter, and Papyrus took a moment just to watch you. A high flush rose to your cheeks, but instead of being embarrassed or hiding, you were animated and passionate. He admired the way you were smiling, your eyes bright and focused, your lips forming around the words as you continued your explanation.

He never felt so much like kissing someone on the spot. Instead, he compromised with himself and hugged you from behind, stopping you in your tracks.

“Hey, what's up? Am I going too fast or-” you leaned into him, and looked up to his face. What you saw stopped you mid-sentence. Papyrus met your eyes with unabashed tenderness and for a moment you forgot what you were going to say.

“THANK YOU, FOR SHOWING ME ALL OF THIS,” he squeezed your arms tightly for a second, before letting go.

“I... its no problem, this kind of thing is, well it's a lot of fun for me,” you stumbled, trying to explain yourself. You hadn't broken eye contact with him at all, and for a long hanging moment, you could feel the atmosphere shift and it seemed to wrap tightly around Papyrus and your gaze on him.

Then the door to the apartment suddenly clicked open and shut, breaking the trance and both of you looked away to different spots in the kitchen. You breathed in deeply, suddenly aware that you hadn't been breathing in those moments. Your heart pounded, and something in your mind clicked.

“hey bro, what's going on today?” Sans sauntered in, to be greeted by multiple odd ingredients scattered across the counter and you and Papyrus collecting yourselves awkwardly.

“COOKING PROJECTS! WE JUST PREPARED A CHEESECAKE, AND WE'RE GOING TO MAKE... WHAT NOW?” Papyrus looked at you for further explanation.

“We've got two more projects- ceviche, and a particular cocktail that you can make to visualize DNA,” you offered.

“visualizing dna?” Sans cocked his head, with real interest.

“Hey if you want, we can do that one right now. We use strawberries, pineapple juice, and something with a high alcohol content, like, oh maybe rum? In high school labs, they usually just use something gross like onion or spit, but they probably just want to avoid encouraging bad drinking habits,” you held up a bag of frozen strawberries. “Normally I'd rather use something fresh, but we actually want frozen strawberries. The cells have to be broken up so that we can extract DNA, and obviously dish soap wouldn't be a good idea for something like this-”

You pulled out a couple of baggies and proffered them to the brothers. Your energy was contagious, and they simply followed along, allowing you to babble on.

“DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS SANS?” Papyrus asked. Sans shrugged.

“i'm not berry good with biology, bro,” he joked, unaffected at the severe stare that Papyrus gave him, and you simply ignored the pun.

Before long, you managed to produce the cocktail you were speaking of, a cloudy haze of DNA separating from the strawberry mixture at the bottom of the glass.

“is that really..?” Sans asked, while you prodded the mixture and pulled out long tangled strands from the solution.

“Yeah, it is. This is the physical matter that determines what a strawberry is,” you answered, having fun with the way the DNA gooped around the spoon. You offered the spoon to him, and Sans took his turn to poke at the DNA on the spoon.

“WEIRD,” Papyrus remarked. He wasn't as interested in the concoction, but it was nice to see you and his brother messing with it and enjoying yourselves.

“What impresses me is that this is actually edible, even if you have to use a really high proof in order to get this result,” you told them. Of course, now that you mentioned it, the drink was made ready for anyone to drink it. “Hrm, I actually never made this before. I don't know how good it actually tastes...”

“none for me, thanks,” Sans instantly opting out. You offered the drink to Papyrus, who also shook his head, before sipping cautiously. You shuddered and set the drink down.

“That's really boozy. I think I'll just save this for party tricks,” you grimaced with a barely controlled cough. “I'm not looking to get wasted right now anyway.”

“YOU MENTIONED THERE WERE OTHER PROJECTS, RIGHT?” Papyrus prompted. You nodded right away.

“Right, I was actually saying before, that cooking is often thought of as the process of using heat. But really, you can also use salt and acid to 'cook' with. I wanted to challenge the way you might view cooking,” you explained. Sans slipped out of the kitchen, leaving you both to your thing.

“ALL RIGHT. SO WE'RE USING ACID?” Papyrus sounded the slightest bit dubious, but perhaps less so than if you opened with this project instead of the others.

“In this case, we're using citric acid!” you explained, nodding happily. “Lime juice is traditionally used here, since ceviche is a Mexican dish. Cooking is just denaturing proteins, so anything that could make you sick, won't. Bacteria don't survive under these conditions unless they naturally live in extreme environments to begin with and those bacteria aren't adapted to make you sick!”

You chopped a ton of limes and raw shrimp, then cilantro, jalapenos, and squeezed the limes into a bowl with all of the ingredients to make a sour solution. The oven went off and you adjusted the ambient temperature as Papyrus took over squeezing lime juice. You joined him again, and then once it was all done, you stirred in a large amount of salt, and threw the slowly whitening meat into the fridge.

“Annnd we won't be able to make this for a few days so I didn't count it as a project for today, but I wanted to show you how to make a sourdough bread starter!” you measured out equal amounts of flour and warm water and stirred in active dry yeast from a package. 

“I WAS WONDERING WHEN YOU WERE GOING TO USE THE YEAST,” Papyrus remarked. “ALTHOUGH I DON'T THINK WE'VE COVERED THIS IN CLASS YET?”

You winked mischievously and simply continued with your explanation, “A sourdough bread starter relies on yeast to ferment flour and water, and so in order for it to “start” you leave it out with cheesecloth wrapped over it for about 3 or so days. Afterwards, I can show you how to maintain it and use it in sourdough bread. Do you want to keep it, or should I look after it in this stage?” You didn't exactly ask Papyrus if he wanted an amorphous goopy pet before deciding you were going to show him how to make one.

“WELL, I AM PRETTY GREAT AT TAKING CARE OF THINGS, SEEING AS SANS' ROCK AND ANNOYING DOG IS DOING WELL,” Papyrus bragged, but then leveled a wary stare at the innocuous pale goop. “EVEN IF THIS IS... A LIVING MASS OF YEAST?”

You made a mental note not to let him see “The Blob”, seeing him set off by the starter. You scrawled feeding instructions on a notepad and added a list of “How to look for “sick starter” signs as an afterthought. As a budding microbiologist, you knew what to look for, but this could get sketchy pretty quickly.

“Now, you promise you won't uncover this or try to use it before I come back and check on it, right?” You asked him, fixing a stern gaze on him.

“I JUST IGNORE FOR 3 DAYS STRAIGHT?” Papyrus asked, still wrapping his head around the concept of living fermented foods. You nodded. “OKAY THEN!”

Practically in a blissful haze after spending so much time cooking and talking to Papyrus, for a few moments you just stood there with a satisfied smile. Once more, Papyrus examined the way your smile pushed up at your eyes and storing the image away for later. He wanted to preserve the moment, but alas, for once no one else was there to capture your content expression. He made a mental note to get Amber's number and ask her if she'd managed to catch a picture of you in a similar state. For the moment though, he tugged at your arm.

“LETS WATCH SOMETHING WHILE WE WAIT FOR THE CHEESECAKE TO FINISH COOKING,” he offered.

“Yeah, I think I need a break,” you admitted. “Still, that was a lot easier than working by myself. Thanks for the help!”

You sat on the couch next to him, and for the first time since meeting Papyrus, you felt a little nervous leaning on him. Your heart had ceased beating so rapidly since that moment in the kitchen, but you could still feel each individual beat.

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

Ba-dump.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost through making the sprint through the semester..! Which is good, because I'm out of pre-written chapters lol. As far as I'm concerned, upload schedule will remain on a weekly basis, and for those of you wondering, here's the list for AU/Extras I've got plotted out or considering for the story-  
> Underfell (3/3)  
> Underswap (2/3)  
> Bittybones (1?)  
> Mafiatale (?)
> 
> Question marks mean I'm uncertain about the plot, or adding it to begin with at this time. Feel free to offer up additional suggestions!


	18. Bad Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad things happen in threes, but did it have to happen all at once?

You were waiting inside the classroom, far too early once again. You didn't feel so great- in fact, the previous day you'd sensed on some bodily level that something was off. Your mind wandered worse than usual through your lectures, and even as you hoped that it had to do with the back to back exams, you already knew you were probably catching something.

That said, the classroom was much too warm, stifling like someone had blanketed the air. Out of paranoia, you felt your forehead but you couldn't tell whether you were sick already or not. The lights flickered, and a delicate pulse of pain in your head reverberated with it. You could feel the light working the pain through the back of your eyes. With a loud unrestrained sigh, you buried your head in your arms to attempt to ignore your light sensitivity until class started.

“KITTY!!!” You heard Papyrus boom.

Welp, that plan's null and void now. You sat up to give him a mild smile, “Hey Puppy.”

Today, he seemed to take no note of your slouching figure, but instead looking around the classroom furtively, “IS THERE REALLY NO ONE HERE?”

You shrug. The classes always seemed somewhat emptier nearing the end of the semester. “I think there's still 15 minutes before class, right?”

You glanced up at the clock, and then cocked your head. The clock was completely still. Did it break? The sense of fever shifted, and you shivered. Papyrus shifted in place, and then quickly-

“LISTEN, I'VE BEEN MEANING TO SAY SOMETHING... SEE YOU CAN'T GO LYING TO ME AS YOUR STUDY BUD- I-I MEAN! MY FRIEND! B-BECAUSE...” he took a deep breath, and out of concern and an internal sense of nervousness, you scooched closer to touch his lower arm. For once, you could feel your heart pulse in your chest rather than your head.

“What is it?” you asked softly.

“I-I... I... OH BOY, IS IT GETTING HOT IN HERE?” Papyrus sweated, and you were sweating too, but you felt cold and clammy. You stood up uncertainly and the room seemed to dim, and spin.

“W-WELL! THESE FEELINGS YOU MUST BE FEELING... C-COULD IT BE THAT YOU LIKE ME, YOUR COOLEST FRIEND, THE GREAT PAPYRUS?” Papyrus announced brashly, and the room managed to stop in place only for you to spot specific spots wavering and blossoming darkness in the corner of your vision.

“Puppy...” you tried to say, but you were uncertain what you wanted to say next, but the stopped clock was melting like the painting “The Persistence of Time”. The colors of the conservative frame leached out and dripped black sludge.

“W-WAIT DON'T GO! IF THIS IS A... THEN I WANT TO…” Papyrus seemed frantic, finally breaking out of his own head to notice the state of decay of the room and your own feverish condition. But your head was ringing and you couldn't quite catch everything he was saying.

“KITTY, I-”

Even trying your hardest to bring the world back into view, you managed to slip through the floor. The next thing you knew, you could hear a clock ticking loudly and the grainy dead air static channeling through a phone receiver. A voice warbled indistinctly,

“Wake up, human.”

With a gasp and a cough following, you were jolted unceremoniously from your dream. Bent over your desk for several seconds, you wheezed miserably before looking around. The classroom was dark, and empty. Without any doubt even through your fever baked mind, you could remember falling asleep during your last class of the day, but why hadn't anyone woken you up? And where did the voice come from if no one was here?

You pulled yourself out of your chair wearily to collect your stuff and walk out. You really needed to take some medicine and pass out at home, but as you turned the doorknob, it stuck. No, not stuck- actually locked. It took you a few minutes of experimentally twisting the handle in different directions and jimmying it before the reality of your situation sunk in.

Dr. Carter locked you in this room on a Friday night. Judging by the cold sweat beading through your jacket and involuntary clench and shiver throughout your muscles, you were almost certain you were running a fever like in your dream. At least your head wasn't spinning, but feeling yourself move with a marionette's unsteady gait, you weren't sure you should just wait for someone to come along and discover stragglers. 

Rubbing your forehead, and examining your surroundings, you couldn't help cursing, “That fucker actually left me in here.”

You pulled open the window's blinds, and looked out, instantly blanching. You were on the third floor, and whereas the fall might not kill you, injuries were... extremely likely. You sat next to the window, feeling the gravity of the situation. Heh... oh god now you knew you were losing it when your mind was cracking bad puns at the most inopportune times. Thinking of puns however, made you wonder if your friends might have been lurking on campus still, and you dug through your stuff to check your phone.

The light of your phone glowed “1:52 AM” and you groaned internally. They were almost certainly all asleep at this point, and you were uncertain what to do at this point. You checked out the window again, and started trying to work at the locks when you discovered that there were none. Shoot, this wasn't exactly your apartment, was it? Someone passed by, and suddenly... you thought you might be able to get some help after all.

The thought filled you with inspiration.

None too gently, you grabbed a chair and rapped the window with the legs. The person passed out of hearing range apparently, but you could be patient. There soon was another person passing, and you slammed the chair even harder on the window, willing them to look up.

Startled, they looked around, and to encourage their search you slammed your palm against the window, regretting it almost immediately as the force stung your palm. Fortunately, they finally looked up and you waved with wide broad movements, before pulling out a wide tipped marker from your backpack. You sketched slowly and deliberately, trying your hardest to make the letters readable to the person on the other side.

“PLEASE GET SOMEONE TO UNLOCK CLASS 311 ON THE 3RD FLOOR,”

You watched anxiously for any sign of understanding, before they walked on. Resigned to starting over again, you sighed and sunk down to your feet, feeling even more tired than before. You could almost feel yourself fall over when footsteps reverberated throughout the hall.

You pulled yourself up to your feet suddenly to go to the door, but tilted over almost immediately from the head rush, seizing a desk as you tilted. A mechanism in the doorknob started shifting and you looked up at the solid door with anticipation.

It didn't open, but the footsteps started again and faded away.

Puzzled, you went to go try the door, and the handle slid from side to side easily. Much like the beginning of your night, you stared uneasily. Warily, you grasped the knob like it might shock you, and pushed the door open. The hallways were empty. Your head started pounding, and you tasted bile and salt at the back of your mouth. With a nearly superstitious dread, you backed from the hall, and then sprinted out.

You dashed down the stairs and nearly tackled a janitor coming up, accompanied by the stranger you flagged down. “AH!!!”

You seized the handle and swung forward another step, face to face with the exhausted looking worker and still managing to jostle them a little. “I am so sorry, I-”

“Watch where you're going!” she complained, and then stranger spoke up-

“Hey, weren't you in that room just a few minutes ago?” They appeared to be another teacher, which wouldn't necessarily surprise you. You've already heard a few different teachers complain-brag about staying up to ungodly hours working on their research.

“I- yes, someone was just up there!” you explained, unexpectedly feeling yourself tearing up. You realized that you weren't just shaking from being sick, but you were also genuinely scared. “But... they didn't let me out, I-I mean, they unlocked it b-but..!”

You shut down, unable to continue verbalizing the odd incident. You rubbed your cheek, agitated. “I'm sorry, I'm really tired, and I just woke up in class with everyone gone and to be honest I thought I was going to be stuck there all weekend..!”

“Maybe the door handle was just stuck miss,” the janitor shot a questioning glance at the teacher, “This is one of the older school buildings on campus.”

“There's still the matter of the teacher leaving a student in the classroom,” the teacher frowned. “And the fact of the marker on the window.”

You sighed exhaustively, still feeling uneasy. The nape of your neck prickled with each second of staying still,“Dry erase... I keep one for the white boards in the library.”

“All right. Well you get going, its late already and if you don't mind me saying so, you don't look like you're holding up so well miss,” the janitor patted your shoulder briefly before trudging up the stairs and you had the presence of mind to watch them sheepishly. “Go home.”

“Before you do that, who's your teacher, and what is your name and student ID?” the teacher interrogated, and you rattled off the number haltingly. 

“Its too late to report this now, but I will have the office looking into this incident. Expect a message in the next couple of days, you may need to report this to somebody,” they told you sternly. You nodded, fidgeting in place. “Are you okay? You look...”

Your phone lit up in the dimmed out lights of the hallway, the heavy guitar of an anime theme song ringing out in the silence.

“I don't think so... I think I'm sick,” you said truthfully, and held up your phone uncertainly, before recognizing the number, “Hello..?”

“YOU'RE AWAKE AT THIS HOUR?” came Papyrus's worried voice through the receiver.

“Yeah... why are you still awake?” you responded.

“I JUST WOKE UP,” he said.

“Ah...” a heavy silence fell between you, the phone, and the teacher. Something in your mind caught on the statement, but you couldn't quite figure out what. Instead, you focused on what was happening now, “Actually... I hate to ask, but I'm still on campus a-and...”

“YOU'VE BEEN STUDYING ALL NIGHT AT THE LIBRARY? WAIT NO... THE LIBRARY CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT! SO YOU MUST'VE BEEN... DOING WHAT?!” Papyrus deduced up until a point, and you filled him in with great reluctance.

“I've apparently been sleeping in class, while my teacher locked me in the classroom,” you mumbled.

“ARE YOU STILL IN THERE?! NYEH!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL ME SOONER-” he yelled through the receiver and you held it at a distance. Stomping sounds could be heard, and some strange shuffling that made the receiver sound of static.

“I'm out of the classroom... somehow. I just...” your stomach roiled and you could only mutter “Ah shoot-” before running to the nearest trashcan in the hallway and heaving whatever was in your stomach.

“W-WHAT WAS THAT?!” Papyrus sounded more worried than angry now. And somehow a little green. You could hear more shuffling, and somewhere in the background you thought maybe you could hear Sans speaking too. The teacher behind you looked positively alarmed now.

“I think I've got the flu...” you rasped.

“I-I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!!!” and with no further ado, the phone clicked. Your phone background and the “2:43 AM” glowed faintly in place of the call.

“Hey listen, lets get you some fresh air...” the teacher led you out, and helped you put your head between your knees. “Breathe in slowly, then exhale... that's it.”

A car's tires screeched and you looked up halfway expecting to see Papyrus's convertible. Instead, it was an unmarked vehicle speeding away. Your dread returned threefold, and you reflexively gripped your phone harder. Somehow or another, you just dodged a bullet.

What was happening here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, I almost thought I'd never get around to writing plot again! *there's probably worse things in the world than getting lost in fluff* Heh, its good to have finals done with finally. Maybe not immediately, but for anyone that reads the other unfinished stories, I'll probably start updates for those again. <3 Can't believe this story is almost 20 chapters long!


	19. A Little CPR Never Hurt Anyone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Very little is resolved, but that's probably to be expected when you're sick.

Your stomach churning tumultuously, you wondered if you shouldn't call Papyrus and tell him to stay away. However, that car had been driving away... they wouldn't stick around to wait for your friends to show up, right? Your mind felt foggy and slow, and even as you started fumbling with the phone, Papyrus's red convertible came screeching into a parking space. Seeing the skeleton monster, the teacher that had been hovering close by was taken aback.

"Ah... are those your... friends?"

You glanced up to see what they meant by "friends". Sure enough, Sans had tagged along too, slowly bringing up the rear as usual. He didn't look any more tired than usual but his stare seemed a little more piercing than usual. You realized you were spacing off, lost in yourself again and shook your head to rid yourself of the feeling. "Yeah, its fine."

You brushed your hands against your temples trying to ward off any sense of nausea that accompanied your movement. The teacher commented openly, "You're kind of a weird girl, aren't you?"

Their tone held a note of astonishment, as Papyrus all but tackles you, his exuberance marked with a frenzied anxiety. "KITTY! YOU LOOK... WELL, RATHER PALE." 

"Mm-hm," came your miserable response. You pushed yourself to your feet laboriously. "Thanks a lot, and I'm really sorry you had to do this... but, I don't think I can walk home like this."

"hey, here's a thought- don't try," Sans huffed with a good natured concern. His stare didn't seem to soften any, but he didn't act like he had just been woken up either. From the few nights you'd crashed on their couch after the accident, you'd woken up occasionally to shuffling in the kitchen and so you thought that maybe being up at different hours might've been fairly normal for the elder of the brothers. 

"THAT'S RIGHT! IT'S NOT SAFE FOR YOU TO BE WALKING HOME SICK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! ESPECIALLY AFTER THIS BUSINESS WITH BEING LOCKED INTO A CLASSROOM..."

" sounds like an adventure," Sans grinned cheekily.

"Well..." you started with heavy sarcasm, "...it started in the classroom, then the adventure continued in the hallway, and ended somewhere around..." you waved in the general direction of the hallway you were standing outside of "...somewhere near that trashcan. It was an adventure full of peril. And trash cans. And getting violently ill near one."

Papyrus turned a little green in response but Sans laughed good naturedly, "i get it, i get it. not in the mood for a little ribbing this morning, huh?"

"Nooo not at all," you groaned.

"WELL, IN ANY CASE, I THINK IT'S BEST IF YOU AREN'T LEFT ALONE!!! I STILL NEED TO KNOW WHAT THIS HUMAN ILLNESS IS EXACTLY..." Papyrus leads you gingerly by the elbow to his cool car. Recognizing their cue to leave, the teacher waved and shuffled off, entrusting your care to the skele-bros.

"I can explain the flu a little later..." you mumbled, "...but for now, could you drive a little more slowly?" Neither of them had ever seen you hold yourself so cautiously before, drooping from exhaustion wasn't unusual, but your movements were stiff and unbalanced. You were still sweating profusely, and your complexion was waxy.

"Y-YES, YOU'D RATHER NOT GET SICK AGAIN, AND I'D RATHER NOT GET SICK EITHER... ESPECIALLY INSIDE THE CAR!" Papyrus announced sheepishly as you'd buckled yourself in. You didn't take offense, even if you had the energy to do so. Instead you leaned into your crossed arms curling up like a hedgehog, and gave a wobbly thumbs up. Sans patted your back sympathetically, before getting in the passenger's seat to yawn and close his eyes.

"sooner's probably better later bro," he warned cheerfully.

Papyrus started the car, and fortunately, he took your request to heart. If you didn't look up and watch the road pass by, you could pretend you weren't moving at all. Papyrus wasn't able to keep himself from glancing at the rear view mirror to check on you worriedly. He couldn't remember what it had been that woke him up, but a sense of pressing concern had caused him to call you despite the hour. Having his worries justified in such a spectacular fashion, Papyrus wasn't sure if it was truly safe for you to be left alone like this.

"DO YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO YOUR APARTMENT, OR... MAYBE STAY OVER AGAIN?" he asked, only barely managing to keep his flush down. This wasn't about his feelings after all! You were really sick and needed care!

"N-no, I dunno if you guys can catch the flu, but you don't want it believe me. This really sucks," you objected lowly, barely audibly.

Papyrus glanced at Sans uneasily, and he holds his palms out in a halfhearted shrug. "sorry, ____ we couldn't hear you there."

Sans twists in his seat to glance at you for a second, and you shake your head at him, croaking "My apartment."

"roger that, she wants to head to her place bro," Sans relays.

Unable to object, Papyrus switched lanes, and eventually gets you to your apartment, with your nausea fading gradually on the way. You climb out of the car shakily, and lean heavily for a second. Despite your earlier 'nap' in the classroom, you felt exhausted. "Thanks, I got it from here. I'll call a little later to let you know I'm still alive," you joked tepidly.

"WAIT, AT LEAST LET ME WALK YOU TO THE DOOR-" Papyrus scrambled out of the car to tag along closely. You smiled tremulously, almost tempted to cling to your friend with unspoken gratitude. However, you knew that prolonged contact could get him sick, especially if monsters weren't adapted to human illnesses, it could be much more serious than how you were now. So instead, you began climbing the stairs up to your apartment.

A slow buzzing began whining in your head, and you recognized the beginning of a faint. You swung around to sit on the steps and try to level it out despite Papyrus's look of alarm. "Ahhh, give me a...sec...ond..." Unlike the last time in the hospital, your vision began saturating with white in contrast to the darkness of the early morning hours.

You slump carelessly into the railing, and Papyrus calls your name a few times before Sans recognizes something wrong with the situation and comes over to check it out, "try laying her flat somewhere, like the doc did awhile ago."

Papyrus carefully pulls you up and carries you over to some even ground at the bottom of the stairs, and unable to resist, Sans adds jokingly "i think this is the point where humans do cpr or something like that."

With typical Papyrus fashion, he takes the suggestion literally. Papyrus stiffens a little bit, but without even taking the time to let his nerves get the best of him, he leans forward to attempt mouth to mouth. It was rather difficult to push air into your lungs when most of it came whistling out past his teeth, but he tries anyway.

Somewhere in that time your awareness slowly filters back in, only for the internal buzzing to slowly give way to the feeling of air blowing across your mouth, and... teeth..? 

"SANS I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!" he declared tearfully. "I CAN'T SEEM TO PERFORM THE PROCEDURE PROPERLY!"

Sans started snorting, trying not to laugh, "oh my god, you weren't actually supposed to give her mouth to mouth bro." 

You weren't sure what was going on here, but somewhere in your fever-baked brain you were almost certain some sort of misunderstanding was taking place. "Err..?"

"NONSENSE! HOW CAN YOU GIVE CPR WITHOUT MOUTH TO MOUTH?!" Papyrus yelled at him, and you groaned.

"Should I even ask..?" You sat up slowly. You brushed your hand over your mouth suspiciously, and slowly piecing together what had happened.

"oh look, it worked," Sans grinned, nearly chuckling with mirth.

Between Sans laughing, and you sitting on the ground looking even more dazed than you did start with, Papyrus crossed his arms and frowned severely at the both of you. His cheekbones glowed with embarrassment. "NO, YOU SHOULD NOT ASK. HOWEVER! YOU ARE CLEARLY IN NO SHAPE TO ENDURE THIS FLU ALONE! AND IF YOU WON'T ASK YOUR FRIENDS FOR HELP, THEN I WILL CALL THE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY!"

Curiously, Sans asks for you, "wuzzat?"

"ASGORE'S CL- I MEAN, HER MAJESTY EX-QUEEN TORIEL!" 

"Goat-mom?" you asked unthinkingly.

Looking triumphant, Papyrus declares "EXACTLY! YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO REBUFF THE AUTHORITY OF A MATERNAL FIGURE!"

Well, he wasn't wrong. It was hard to imagine successfully resisting Toriel if she got it into her head to keep you bedridden. Nonetheless, you protested, "It's like 3 in the morning! Plus, Frisk is-"

"-IS VISITING ASGORE ON THE WEEKEND!" Papyrus cuts you off. "AND I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT SHE WOULDN'T MIND LOOKING AFTER A SICK HUMAN."

"face it ____, you're probably not going anywhere until toriel breathes some life into you," Sans snorted, and Papyrus flushes harder.

"SANS!"

You rub your face helplessly. It really seems you aren't getting out of this one.

~

Toriel understood the situation as soon as she glimpsed your pallid face, and despite the early hours of the morning, she made a point to force some bubble tea down your throat and tuck you in. Sans had already made himself comfortable on one of the chairs in the living room but Papyrus remained on his feet, pacing. He was scrolling through his phone's screen, attention rapt, and the furrows deepening in his expression.

"Papyrus, what are you reading dear?" Toriel asks, as she walks back out in the living room, seeing the way he remained agitated.

"A HUMAN WEBSITE ON DISEASE..." Papyrus responds distractedly. He suddenly straightens up, "HUMANS HAVE DIED FROM CATCHING THE FLU!" 

"Papyrus-" Toriel starts saying, only to be interrupted.

"SHE WON'T DIE, RIGHT?!"

"Papyrus-"

"WHAT IF SHE CAUGHT THIS BIRD FLU? WHY ARE HUMANS GETTING BIRD INFLUENZA ANYWAY?! AND WHAT IF THE SYMPTOMS ARE FROM SOMETHING MORE INSIDIOUS LIKE BACTERIAL PNEUMONIA OR MENINGITIS OR EXCESSIVELY LOW BLOOD SUGAR-"

"one of those things doesn't exactly fit the list," Sans comments before Toriel firmly waves him quiet.

"PAPYRUS sit down and let me see what you've been reading for the last 15 minutes," Toriel ordered, and despite himself Papyrus obeys. Taking the phone from him, Toriel sees a website checklist full of symptoms and a VERY long list of potential illnesses. Without saying a word, she turns the phone off and sets it on the coffee table. "I don't think this is website is actually helping you. She just needs to take regular fluids and rest for a few days. Now, have either of you gotten proper rest?"

"I-" Papyrus begins, but is promptly cut off.

"go to sleep bro. you're an early bird, but you're not a night owl. leave the mothering to tori, will ya?" Sans said.

"Yes, you may borrow Frisk's bed for the time being, I'm sure they won't mind," Toriel joined in. 

"W-WELL, ITS TRUE I'M NOT NORMALLY UP AT THIS TIME, BUT-" he stopped, hesitating.

"No buts! I insist," and with that Toriel firmly leads him away, leaving Sans to sigh in relief. He wasn't sure Papyrus was ever going back to sleep since waking up so unexpectedly in the middle of the night. 

"tori, can i ask something real quick?" he asked as Toriel returned, yawning and covering her mouth with her palm.

~

You weren't sure how long you were asleep, but it was dark when you woke up. Sheets clung to you as the comforter of the spare bed slides off, and you race to dry heave the remains of your stomach in the nearby toilet, shivering violently.

"knock knock," you heard Sans speak from the entrance of the bathroom. 

"How long was I out?" you asked, flushing the toilet and leaning against the counter.

"that's not how you answer," He checked his wrist as if there was a watch resting there, "about 19 hours...no, 20 hours. buddy, i think you'd nearly broke my bronze sleeping record."

"Nearly? Bronze?" you said with eyebrows raised. "I'm not sure whether to be impressed or worried." He waves you off. 

"neither. medicine's in the kitchen, i was instructed to make sure you take the full regiment and eat something, but personally, i just want to ask you don't wake up paps," he tells you as you stand and make your way out of the bathroom, "he's currently 'guarding' outside your door, but well..."

Papyrus was snoozing away in a chair that was moved next to your room, undisturbed despite your door slowly swinging after being thrown open. You sighed with exasperation and fondness in equal measure, "Oh... Puppy."

"yeah... so try to wake up on time for breakfast, and maybe let him know you're not suffering from laryngitis or something equally offbeat," Sans continues.

"What? Why laryngitis?" you were taken aback.

"since you've been asleep, he's been uh, looking up human illness using some sort of doctors website. you know the one, ends with .com instead .edu or .gov?"

"The one with the symptom/illness matchup?" You ask and Sans nods. You buried your hands in your face, "Oh nooo... no wonder he's freaking out."

"yup. tibia honest, i'm surprised he was up when he was. not gonna fib-ula, it's pretty unusual for papyrus not to sleep through the night. so, try not to bug him in your sleep next time and use a phone like a normal human being," he strolls away, and before you can catch up and snag his jacket, blips away.

With little choice but to mull over the latest oddity in the last 48 hours, you trudge into the kitchen to take a couple of anti-viral pills, some cold and flu syrup, and a glass of water to choke it down. The rest of the medicine appears to have been hastily picked with no real rhyme or reason and you head back to your room. You pause at the sight of Papyrus still asleep next to your room, and with thoughts of him amassing the ridiculous collection of medicine, you brush your lips against his skull before quickly closing the door and collapsing in bed again. 

You exhaust yourself burying your face in pillows and muffling squeaks of embarrassment over what you'd just done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, this is a bit off schedule, but that's what happens when you aren't writing at home. Hopefully, the extra length is satisfactory (and that I'm not editing terribly).


	20. Bonus Underfell Part 2: Cats Don't Follow the Laws of Nature

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You volunteer at the shelter while UF!Papyrus decides to arbitrarily adopt a pet.

A few weeks passed without running into the Great and probably not so Terrible Papyrus again. You were just going through the motions of school, studying, and volunteering occasionally at the shelter. Fortunately this day, most of the actual cleaning of animals cages were done so you just had to keep the animals company, specifically the ones that were brought out on display for people visiting. 

You sat down to pat the dogs and babysit for awhile, playing fetch and cooing sweetly at them. A collie mix rested his head in your lap while a boxer mix and a pointer puppy demanded tug of war. You kind of wished you had extra arms once a dachshund started climbing on your lap and irritating the sleeping dog there. Nonetheless, you were reluctant to go when another volunteer offered to step in. However, she was allergic to the cats and since they needed attention as well, you changed posts to the cat room.

The kittens in their playpen kept their distance when you stepped in smelling of dog, but they approached cautiously enough once you laid flat and allowed them to start climbing on you curiously. One of the shelter workers chuckled, leaning over the pen barrier, as one began stepping clumsily on your face. He watched you giggle and seize the tiny thing, lifting it with a gentle “Phewww!” before hugging it.

“Honestly, the way you roll around with the animals the way you do, I wouldn't be surprised if half our customers visit just to watch you,” he said, and you sat up self-consciously, adjusting your clothes. You still weren't sure about him, but other than the occasionally getting annoyed, you haven't experienced anything untoward so you kept your reservations to yourself.

“Oh, talking about the college kid who still acts like she's four?” you joked. You attempted to coax an older cat into approaching you, but she crouched in alarm and backed away. You stopped reaching out and waited patiently for her to relax.

“Nahhh you've got that kind of charm that I'll bet even girls would like. C'mere...” The last statement was directed at the cat that refused to let you touch her, and you could see the cat shy away from his touch as well. He leans over too far over and you warn-

“Careful!”

-before he accidentally breaks through the partition. All terrified now, the cats scatter and you manage to retrieve a few kittens attempting to break for it. You growl, “Honestly! Now we gotta make sure the cats get back here.”

“Ow..! Its not like I meant to,” he grumbles, only barely catching one of the adults by the hind leg and getting himself swiped in the process. You spotted the cat that originally evaded you both, skulking toward the door.

“OH no you don't!” you leaped forward, almost headbutting the wall. The cat darted to the other side of the room and the worker caught her. “Oh goo-”

Then the door opened and one of the older kittens that were still loose darted out beneath the startled worker's feet. You jolt back onto your feet, feeling your heart thud from the sudden exertion. “NOT GOOD!”

You run out of the room trying to follow the kitten, and before you knew it, the little orange tabby had managed to even dart out of the shelter when a customer with kids walk in. You dash out after it, in the hot almost-summer weather. This really wasn't good. Brightly colored or not, a cat dashing out into traffic was bound to end in tragedy. You did your best to pick up speed.

Hot on the cat's tail, the two of you run across the sidewalk and past a street, and you veer to dodge an opening glass door to a bakery. It ducks into the alleyway and you had a moment of tension trying to figure out where it was leaning to, and vice versa. You decided to throw all caution to the wind and threw yourself bodily at the cat.

Unfortunately, despite scraping up both elbows and a knee, you only mostly held onto the cat. A few long seconds later, the kitten had nearly worked its way out of your grip, clawing and hissing furiously as you struggle to figure out a way to hold tight without hurting the poor thing. A monster girl wearing bloomers and a blouse suddenly steps in front of the alleyway and she watches you struggle with amusement. The cat finally makes its bid for freedom before... it stops. You weren't sure what you were seeing at first.

It was hanging mid-air, seeming as startled and alarmed as you were. It spun rapidly, twisting violently. You heard a long giggle, the mirth drawn out in almost a series of hiccups. Horrified at the way the orange tabby flipped and spun in-air, you stagger forward and hug it close to your chest. The cat's claws sunk deeply into your neck and collarbone, causing you to tear up even as you felt the way the cat seemed caught almost on twine.

“E-excuse me, did you do this?” you asked timidly.

“Huehuehue... I thought I sensed a commotion out here. You ought to be more careful with your pussycat miss,” the spider girl twitches one of her arms in an odd gesture, and the taut line restraining the cat suddenly fell uselessly across your arms, sticking uncomfortably there.

“Yeah, blame the guy that works at the shelter. You'd think working there every day, you'd remember not to let animals run free,” you complained amiably, your injuries all starting to smart with varying intensity. She stood there looking at you and the cat without saying anything. You quickly opted for a diplomatic retreat, growing increasingly uncomfortable, “Well, in any case, thanks a lot. I was scared there'd be a body before the day ends.”

You dipped your head in acknowledgment before scooting past her, and make your way back to the shelter.

~

Sans wasn't sure what had got into Papyrus's mind, honestly. The Boss brought home a skele-ton of bakery items a few weeks ago which apparently weren't even from a regular store, but some odd charity stand the humans occasionally set up. Other than the sheer volume of goods, it was pretty odd that he paid attention to a food stand that Sans wasn't asleep at to begin with. That same day he spent the night on the phone with Undyne, discussing bringing back the Royal Guard and he claims the two incidents AREN'T related? Please. He knows him better than that.

However, things seemed to have settled down otherwise, up until this day when Papyrus screamed his name from the kitchen. He could only hope he hadn't discovered the hidden stash of mustard.

“SANS!!”

Sans trudged through the hallway reluctantly, “ 'sup boss?”

“I NEED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT A VERY IMPORTANT DECISION I'VE MADE TODAY,” Papyrus growled. “AS A MEMBER OF THIS HOUSEHOLD, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU BE DEBRIEFED.”

“are you finally reinstating the royal guard with undyne, boss?” Sans said, assuming that was what it would be about.

“YES, BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT! I HAVE DECIDED THAT WE NEED SOMETHING COMPETENT TO WATCH THIS HOUSEHOLD, SOMETHING TOUGH, SOMETHING THAT INTRUDERS WOULDN'T EXPECT...”

Sans was mildly surprised at having guessed wrong, but it didn't take him long to cut through the grandiose speech of his younger brother, “...something like a guard dog?”

“YES!” Papyrus didn't even cuff Sans for interrupting him. “WE SHALL VISIT A SHELTER WITH POSTHASTE!”

This isn't exactly where Sans saw this day going.

Especially as the shelter that Papyrus picked seemed to be disorganized. There was a pen with a bunch of puppies and grown dogs watching a loose cat that still resisted capture, apparently escaped from a collapsed pen across the way. This normally would've meant they left the establishment by now.

Beyond the way, someone was showing the Boss the animals that were held in cages beyond the room. To its credit, the place was fairly clean if one could ignore the copious amounts of pet hair and litter box dust in the air, but Papyrus seemed to be uninterested somehow.

It was almost like he was looking for something specific.

“H-hey, can someone help me get this cat in a cage?” you huffed as you limped through the door of the shelter. “I think we've had enough adventure for today.”

“Oh yeah, definitely. We also still need to catch one of the cats, but we can't seem to corner it... it practically defies physics...” the worker that originally caused the mess pulled the cat from your arms, its claws raking extra furrows into the skin of your chest and pulling the collar out on your shirt. “Can you catch him?”

You weren't able to hide a hiss of displeasure, but that was easily concealed by one remaining claw unhooking from your shirt before the tabby was totally transferred, “Sure, why not... but I'm going home after this.”

Sans sees Papyrus straighten up like a shot from examining a small terrier yapping in one of the cages, and then attempt to hide his behavior. In an exaggerated show of casual boredom, he looks to the door where some of the shelter people were talking, before looking away. Sans looks to the door as it opens.

“Knew I could count on you!” he pats your back roughly as you cringe from the rough contact, before he ducks inside the shelter room with all of the cages. You look around to finally see a black cat on top of a vending machine. Weird, how DID it get up there anyway?

You were too sore to pull any more stunts like chasing it, so you decided just to focus on other tactics. Pulling out your wallet, you fed a few quarters into the machine the cat was watching suspiciously from, and hit the button for a water bottle. The girl that was allergic to cats groaned,

“What are you even doing?”

You held up one finger, while chugging half the water bottle and slowly migrate your way to the front desk. You pull out a few dog biscuits from the treat bowl, changed your mind to dump most of them out, and broke the remaining ones into pieces. You pour some water into the bowl and stir it with a finger and pulled a chair so that you could push the bowl on top of the vending machine before sitting down and chugging the other half of the bottle.

“goddamn girl, looks like that cat got more than your tongue,” someone commented. You glance up, and nearly choke mid-gulp as you make eye contact with yet another skeleton monster. He had a golden tooth and red eyelights glowing out from the sockets, wearing a nonseasonal heavy black jacket and basketball shorts. While you were distracted with not drowning in your water bottle, Papyrus stepped into the room only do a double take of your disheveled state.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?” he demanded, storming over. You flail your hands frantically, still trying not to cough and lightly push him to the side.

Hoarsely, you tell him “Stay back a second here!”

Fortunately, the cat was thoroughly distracted by the mushy dog biscuits you set up as tribute and didn't take note of the loud monster. You deemed this an opportune time to rescue it from the top of the vending machine, and it yowled angrily as you scooped it up. A paw raked across your cheek and you winced, before hugging it close.

“These guys are what happened to me,” you explained, doing your best to ignore the fact that blood began welling up from the latest scratch. In a few seconds, it'd definitely be dripping down your face. You attempted to joke, “Funny running into you here, Papyrus. Want this hellcat?”

“A HELLCAT? THEY MUST BE FIERCE IF THEY'VE MANAGED TO DO ALL OF THAT... THEY MUST BE THE PERFECT GUARDS!”

“H-huh?” you stuttered. This wasn't the response you expected.

“gotta say boss, i doubt anyone will expect a guard cat,” the other skeleton said in the background. “but weren't we getting a dog?”

“NYEH HEH HEH!!! THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED FOR A PROTECTOR OF OUR DOMAIN! I SHALL TAKE THIS ESTEEMED HELLCAT OFF YOUR HANDS!” Papyrus declared. Absolutely floored, you had no better response than to slowly hold out the cat who began growling a warning, before biting Papyrus's phalanges. “LOOK SANS, ITS ALREADY WELL-TRAINED!”

“yep, guess so boss,” the smaller of the two skeletons shrug. You walk over to the backroom, still favoring your scraped knee.

“Hey, can I get someone to get this cat's paperwork? Someone wants to adopt- oh you've got it? Cool thanks,” you turn to Papyrus and the other skeleton. “I think someone will be out here to help you soon. Are you going to be okay with that cat?”

The said cat was systematically nipping at Papyrus's armor, tail twitching with extreme irritation.

“I DON'T THINK I'M THE ONE THAT NEEDS HELP,” Papyrus studies you critically, completely unfazed by his pissy pet. “TELL ME THIS ESTABLISHMENT HAS BASIC FIRST AID.”

“Mostly,” you hedged. You were still somewhat concerned, getting the sinking feeling that he'd never owned a pet before. Probably all that talk about guard cats. “Though I'm probably just going to throw on a bunch of hand sanitizer on these scratches so I can go home and soak the gravel out of my road rash. I'll going to be honest though, I'm not sure I've ever seen a cat got on top of the soda machine. So, if you need help taking care of it, do you want my number? I feel like I owe you anyways seeing as you bought out the bake sale.”

Sans eyes widened and he looked at Papyrus who refused to glance in his direction. “I AM NOT OPPOSED TO SUCH A PLAN. HOWEVER, I WANT REPORTS AS SOON AS YOU ARRIVE TO YOUR DOMICILE SAFELY AND THAT YOU'VE ADMINISTERED MEDICAL ATTENTION TO YOUR WOUNDS.”

“Thanks mooom,” you teased as you traded numbers, and Sans looked at him with disbelief as Papyrus simply grunted. Sans shoved his hands in his pockets, looking to the side as a lot of things started clicking into place. “All right, let me know how the adoption goes. I'm gonna spend the rest of my day nursing my wounds. Later Papyrus!”

You limped out of the door to head home while someone came out of the back room with forms, effectively distracting Papyrus. 

~

Sans watched as the new pet stalked warily across their household in the middle of the night. He'd woken up after Undyne came over to approve the new “guard” and help name it Fearsome Angry Night Ghost a.k.a F.A.N.G. when it pounced from nowhere to gnaw on Undyne's fin. Nursing from a bottle of mustard, he observed F.A.N.G. disappear between the fridge and the wall.

Sans decided to lay off the mustard for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to indulge in one of bonus AUs this week. I wanted a little extra time to go over the main story for some quality time. I think I'll finish Underfell, and then we'll jump into one of the other AUs for bonus chapters between the main story fragments.


	21. Scent of Lavender and Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You start to get better, and Frisk is the ultimate shipper. So, nothing new really.

You were aware of two things when you woke up- a bad taste in your mouth that needed washing out and a ravenous appetite. Slowly, you worked your way upright despite feeling like lead and wobbled your way out of Toriel's guest room. Papyrus wasn't 'guarding' your door anymore, but you could hear activity throughout the house, you chose to follow the sound of the television blaring.

You remained unnoticed for a solid minute as Papyrus and Undyne debated loudly on camera about who's route to take on what clearly appeared to be a Mew Mew Kissy Cutie Dating Sim. You could only imagine it came from Alphys's Mew Mew Kissy Cutie shrine. Alphys was nowhere to be seen as well Sans, and you suspected they probably had work.

“-kay okay, CLEARLY we're not going after the canon pairing here since that's boring. But why can't we go after the super cute nerd?”

“'CUZ A NERD'S JUST GONNA GO ON ABOUT SOME SUPER WEIRD SUBJECT!!! DO WE REALLY NEED TO SIT THROUGH SOME LECTURE ABOUT PHYSICS OR SNAILS OR-”

Toriel who had been sitting off camera, reading a book, teased him, “Why Papyrus, I didn't know you felt that way!”

“OH YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I MEANT-” Papyrus huffed as he turned to give the ex-queen an impatient look, and his gaze fell upon you standing behind her from the hallway entrance. You waved quietly, smiling weakly.

“You could always go after the delinquent with a heart of gold,” you said hoarsely, throat dry and sore after your sleeping marathon. “I mean, he did keep her secret even after finding out she's a hero.”

Toriel turns in her chair to see you, “My child, it's good to see you awake and walking around. We've already had lunch, but would you like some soup?”

You open your mouth to reply, but feel your words catch in your throat and you clear your throat roughly. You nod as you turn away to bury the incoming coughing fit in your elbow. So you nearly missed the sounds of your impending tackle, stepping to the side just in time for Undyne to sail past you. You were nearly impressed by your evasion skills, except that you were roughly seized by Papyrus to be hugged with spine-cracking force.

“KITTTYYYYY!” he wailed and buried his head in your shoulder. You rubbed the back of his armor consolingly.

“I have no idea where you got laryngitis, but I solemnly swear that I do not have it.” you told him, very much short of breath. “Or type 2 diabetes, so you should probably return the uh, blood sugar machine thingy.”

If your lungs had some trouble before, they were in real pain as Undyne snatched you both up in a giant bear hug, “WELCOME TO THE WAKING WORLD YOU CRAZY PUNK!!!”

You patted at them desperately to let you go, and grasped Toriel's chair to wheeze painfully after you were released. Papyrus quickly began ushering you toward the couch, and presumably safety, “AHHH, I CAN'T BELIEVE WE FORGOT ABOUT YOUR CONDITION SO SOON!! YOU STILL HAVEN'T REGAINED YOUR COLOR!”

You could only imagine what your complexion looked like, as you sighed in relief sitting back down only after a couple of minutes getting up from your sickbed, “Shouldn't I be in the kitchen to eat?”

“No problem, you can just eat here and join the stream!” Undyne plopped down on your left side.

“Oh wait, is this live?” you asked with some alarm. Papyrus grabbed a blanket from another room to throw over you. He sat down at your right side, essentially pinning you in under the blanket. “You guys know I look like shit, right?”

“PSHHH who needs to look good, everyone’s looking at the game anyway, right Paps?” Undyne immediately waved away your self-conscious worries.

“NYEH HEH HEH, YOU LOOK GOOD ANYWAYS AND I'VE GOT AN ENTIRE STREAM CHAT TO BACK ME UP!!!” Papyrus said, scrolling through his phone with the stream on the screen.

“Lemme guess, all the nice comments are monster accounts 'cuz monsters are ridiculously sweet for like no reason, and then there's a bunch of human comments being brutally honest,” you stopped for a second, thinking, “...and then probably Sans on there at some point, trolling everyone.”

“Don't forget the shippers,” Undyne added, unpausing the screen. “Especially with you two dorks giving each other nicknames!” Papyrus screeched suddenly, blustering away at the offhand comment. 

“OH NO!!! YOU NOTICED THAT?!!”

Toriel came back in with a bowl of soup and slowly lowered to you. You carefully steadied it against your legs and chest, sipping at the overly full dishware. There was strange unidentifiable chunks of meat, but as hungry as you were, it took all you had not to scorch your tongue trying to down it. You exhaled after and simply said,

“Shippers will be shippers.”

About 2 extra bowls of soup later, you slowly sunk into the warmth and safety your friends generated as they enthusiastically stalked Kissy Cutie's hapless best friend. So perhaps it's not surprising that the stream was over when you wake up to Undyne's unrepressed battle cry, slowly stirring from drooling into your blankets as Undyne and Papyrus were talking. Blankets? It looks like the two monsters practically built a blanket fortress around you.

“I can't believe that a TEACHER would forget not to lock a student in the classroom!” Undyne growled, and Papyrus nodded along.

“IT DOES SEEM RATHER IRRESPONSIBLE, EVEN IF THEY DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS SICK...” Papyrus mused. 

“Asgore mentioned that she was approached by a teacher a while ago. He seemed to be talking to her about her personal life,” Toriel mentioned, sufficiently distracted from her book to join in. “I wonder if this is the same man?”

“UNACCEPTABLE is what this is! I'm going to head up there and give that guy a taste of my spear!” Undyne roared, and you shook out of your snooze in alarm.

“NO! Nononononononononononono-” you shouted in surprise. “-no! I don't think that's safe!”

All three monsters looked at you like you sprouted a second head, and then a third.

“Did... this man threaten you somehow? Is that why you were locked inside that classroom?” Toriel asked, and much to your surprise you could sense a dark undercurrent to her tone.

“N-not exactly... I'm not sure how to explain this in a way that makes sense...” you worked to recall everything that happened yest- wait no, was this the day before now? Yeah, you basically lost a whole day. It was best to keep the dream to yourself, since it was as confused as your perception of time right now. However, it was important to tell them about that car, and in the context of the strange way you were unlocked from your prison.

“I feel like I was locked in that classroom on purpose. My literature teacher doesn't approve of monsters, at all. If it was just that, I'd think he was just being petty. But...” you stopped. You still weren't sure how to draw the line between the teacher and the events of the night.

“But..?” Toriel prompted you gently. You rubbed your face, feeling stressed out.

“But I wasn't let out by a janitor. I wasn't let out by anyone I could see. And it was really late, yeah?” you looked to Papyrus for confirmation. He nodded, bothered by your apparent distress. “So, it was really strange because the door unlocked suddenly, and no one opened it. Like, you'd go into a room you went through the trouble of unlocking right?

“So, I nearly ran into the janitor and a whole different guy who were going up there to unlock me. They hadn't got up to the classroom and when I went outside to wait for you to show up, there was a car that didn't just drive away but floored it!” you realized you did a terrible job of correlating the two events. “I think maybe it was my professor? But like, there was something really... really... wrong about it all.”

Frustrated with yourself, and feeling like there was something missing, you began tearing up. You buried your head to hide, and sniffled through blankets and congestion. You could feel a gloved hand stroking your hair softly and with a stifled sob you throw yourself against Papyrus, hiccuping “I was really scared!”

Slowly and gently, Papyrus pulls you close, blankets and all. He could feel you hiding your face against his chest, and his soul twinging sympathetically in response. Undyne and Toriel exchanged twin looks of dismay and outrage, Undyne repeated lowly, “That is... unacceptable.”

A gentle knock sounded at the door, and Toriel wordlessly got up to allow Asgore and Frisk in. Frisk bounds in and makes a beeline for the couch. They tap you, and you look up, red eyes and all. They study you intensely, making you feel self conscious and you sat up hastily, “Ah, sorry I've been sick all week, you probably shouldn't-”

Frisk hugs you tightly, patting your back before running away. You giggle, hesitantly, finally cracking a small smile. Seeing the somber atmosphere, Asgore murmurs lowly to Toriel, and they head into the kitchen to talk. Frisk comes out to give you an assortment of artwork, some of them better than others. Some of it is on what appears to be graded math assignments, others on plain printer paper or the margins of essays.

“This is...” you were speechless at the theme. All of them had to do with you and Papyrus, and hearts all over the place! One even went so far as to depict the two of you 'kissing', with an intense amount of effort shown visibly. The eraser marks were essentially rubbed into the page, and a particular amount of attention to the angle that Papyrus would have to press his teeth to your mouth. It suddenly became abundantly clear where Asgore got his previous assumption from. “Er...”

“F-FRISK!” Papyrus squeaked suddenly. Frisk sniggered quietly, and then pushed that particular picture to you before scooping up the others and racing back to their room. You held the picture loosely, helplessly uncertain what to do with it. Undyne poked at your mass of blankets, a sly smile spreading widely.

“What'd Frisk give you to return the color to your face?” she chortled. She snatched the paper from your grip easily, and Papyrus nearly knocked you over the couch lunging to steal it back. “Oooh! Frisk's improving!!! There's more PASSION in this! Lucky, their first drawings of Alphys and I were pretty rough.”

You both stare at her blankly. Throwing your hands up in the universal 'surrender' gesture, you untangle your self from all but one blanket, “I need sea tea.”

You prepare your tea, oblivious to Asgore and Toriel's conversation, and then sip at it. You couldn't stop thinking about the previous night. At this point, it was tough to tell your mortification from the fever, and on that thought you stuck a thermometer in your mouth. You'd just slumped morosely, giving up on making your mind function properly, when Toriel touches your shoulder.

“____? Let's get you back to bed. Do not worry about school until you get better,” she said firmly steering you toward the guest room. She tucks you in, removes the thermometer from your mouth, and then quietly says, “Would you like to try something?”

“Hm?” you mumbled. 

“Just relax, listen to the sound of my voice, and let yourself drift off.” Toriel instructed. She was humming quietly, and for several minutes you just listen to her. Then as you felt yourself drifting, she begins talking in the same tranquil warm tone as her song, 

“Picture the fever as a color inside your head, or inside your lungs. What color do you think it is?”

“Red, the kind that pulses behind your eyelids when you have a bad headache...” you murmured inaudibly.

“Picture this shade of red being pushed out as you breathe. Then picture a different color coming in, something that makes you feel nice,”

“Mm...kay...” you began breathing more deeply, and you could see the colors swirling in your head, not blending but remaining separate. Eventually, the colors began changing even as the 'healthy' color predominated and you could just see lavender. The herbal scent seemed to drift along a breeze, and then you were asleep in a meadow.

Toriel pulls through the air with a slow sweeping gesture, your light purple soul materializing in her arms. She watches it for a few extra minutes.

HP: 11/20

. . .

HP: 11.1/20

. . .

Satisfied, she releases it to slowly dissipate back into your sleeping form. Carefully closing the door as soundlessly as possible, she returns to the living room. Papyrus and Undyne look up from fighting over the drawing, Frisk had taken up playing the dating simulator, and Asgore sat drinking tea peacefully.

Frowning thoughtfully, Toriel announces, “She's not going back to that classroom alone.”

Asgore nods, knowing this already, “No.”

“We take shifts then?” Undyne asks. The drawing is essentially ripped into pieces in her hands, and the remaining pieces in Papyrus's, but Frisk pays it no mind. They're studying the simulator closely, yet at their parent's proclamation, they nod seriously.

“I CAN STEP IN FOR HER CLASS TOMORROW,” Papyrus said, absentmindedly balling up the scraps of paper.

“No way Papyrus!” Undyne grinned, but humorlessly. “You're coming right back here after your classes to spend some quality time with 'Kitty'!”

“I SINCERELY REGRET TELLING YOU EVERYTHING!!” Papyrus yelled.

She ignores his declaration, sticking to her original point. “And I'M going up to that classroom tomorrow.”

Frisk turns to sign, a small frown on their lips. 

“WHAT? NO! I'm not attacking them. I can respect ____'s caution. I just want that jerk to know who they're dealing with!” She growled. Frisk pursed their lips and signed again.

Toriel nodded, “Yes, someone a little more even tempered would be ideal. I would like for you to help me get some of her things tomorrow Undyne.”

“Fine,” she huffed. “But who's going to that class tomorrow night?”

Frisk signed once more, mischief written clearly across their face. Undyne groaned, “Fine, but he better not sleep through the whole thing! Someone's gotta take notes so she doesn't fall behind!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sticking this up before my internet gets knocked out. Storms all around here, I've already had one blackout during a shower. So as much as I'd like to stick around and chat, I should probably not tempt the fates (or weather as it were!). Enjoy, and see you on the next chapter! <3


	22. Souls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus shows you how to summon a soul.

Papyrus stepped into the twilit guest room as quietly as he was capable of, wondering if it was best that you should be woken up for dinner or left to sleep. You'd been asleep off and on the whole day, but that was to be expected from catching such a high fever. He kneels next to the bed, leaning forward with his elbows on the mattress, examining your face as he considers. He wasn't sure, but he thought he could see an improvement in your complexion. A few stubborn strands of your hair stuck to your face and he brushed them out of the way, before he could think better of it. Unexpectedly, he felt something akin to an electrical current humming through the touch across your cheek.

“Hn..?”

At the small sound, he backed away in a sudden contrite panic. Even breaking contact, he could still feel that hum, and as you stirred awake it dwindled away to a fleeting glimmer of purple across your eyes.

“AH, S-SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN TO WAKE YOU!” Papyrus told you, soul pounding heavily in his chest. You rubbed your eyes and stretched languidly as you sat up. You felt worlds better after being put to sleep with Toriel humming with you and putting you to sleep.

“Relax, Puppy,” you smiled up at him. “I'm getting real tired of sleeping anyway, as funny as that sounds.”

“WELL THEN! TORIEL HAS PREPARED DINNER IF YOU'RE FEELING UP TO IT!” Papyrus began to relax again, comforted by the clear improvement in your demeanor. However, he could still feel his fingertips buzzing and the accelerated pulse in his soul. Fortunately, as you reached out and grasped his hand, nothing strange occurred. 

“Definitely,” you agreed, and stood up to follow him out. As you ate, you listened to Toriel lay out the parameters in which you were allowed to resume attending that class with the bottom line-

Not this week, and never alone.

“What if I told you I'm feeling better?” you asked, halfway resigned, and halfway chafing under the overzealous protection. “I'm not falling asleep in that class ever again, I promise.”

“Nope!” Undyne laughs. “You're not getting off so easily. Talk to me again when you can stay awake for longer than a couple of hours at a time.”

As much as you didn't like her answer, she did have a point. Nonetheless, you got visibly restless under the new restrictions as the night continued on. You spaced off as you drew with Frisk, and eventually, the next page you held a pencil in front of was simply blank. Eventually you excused yourself to go shower.

The water started cool enough, but as you got acclimated, you easily adapted to a much hotter temperature. Scrubbing at your skin and face, you began to feel a little more human as you shed the worst of the sick sweat that accumulated over the weekend. Starting to get lightheaded, you stepped out and wrapped a towel around yourself, realizing even as you sat on the edge of the tub that you only had your school clothes. Quietly, you looked at them, reluctant to put the sweaty apparel back on. 

Your mind wandered, and at some point you started thinking about when you woke up earlier. Your cheek had tingled oddly, and you could see Papyrus hesitate before leading you to the kitchen. You wished you could replicate the sensation somehow, but it took a moment to realize it. Next your thoughts wandered to the week before, with that tense moment while you were both cooking. You weren't sure what to think at the time, but you knew that feeling that way was significant.

That's because... now that you had a moment to think about it... You'd just barely finished that thought when someone knocked on the door.

“ARE YOU OKAY IN THERE?”

You smiled ruefully, you should've known he'd be the first to check on you, “I'm okay.”

You fell silent, and then walked over to stand near the door. Partially just to be able to talk with him alone, you said, “Hey... do you think I can bring out my own soul, if I tried?”

He wondered if you were conscious of that steady humming earlier. “M-MAYBE... WHY DO YOU ASK?” 

“Mm, well, I was asking Toriel about something a while back... and she showed me my soul,” you responded, sliding down the wall to sit on the damp chilly bathroom tiles. “Do you... could you help me try?”

“OF COURSE I COULD, I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS AFTER ALL. EVEN SO...” he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms across his chest and shyly finishes, “I'M HONORED THAT YOU WOULD ASK ME.”

“Well, we are the best tag team the world has ever seen,” you managed to laugh, even as you realized that you weren't really joking.

“CLEARLY! BUT PERHAPS IT'S BEST THAT WE TALK ABOUT THIS WITHOUT A DOOR BETWEEN US..?”

“Yeah... sorry I'll be right out.” You could hear his footsteps fade away. Hesitantly, you wiggled back into your underwear and before you could step into your shorts, you heard the knock again. Wrapping the towel around you again, you opened the door.

“I REALIZED THAT THE REASON YOU MIGHT BE STILL IN THE BATHROOM WOULD BE A LACK OF WEARABLE CLOTHING. TORIEL PROVIDED THIS FOR YOU!” He handed you the richly purple robes, with an intense flush across his cheekbones, and then shut the door between you two. You blinked once, and then allowed the fabric to drape across your arms.

Papyrus reluctantly returned to the living room, unable to make eye contact with Toriel, who'd been smiling mischievously to herself. She hadn't been able to resist teasing him as he explained your situation, but now the poor skeleton couldn't seem to unsee the picture she painted.

“Well, perhaps you can bring something of your own for her to wear?” she had said, chuckling even as she entered her room briefly to bring out a dress of hers.

Fortunately, he didn't have to suffer too long as you stepped out of the bathroom finally, feeling like a child playing in her mother's closet. Nonetheless, you could appreciate how comfortable and soft the loose dress was. “Thank you Toriel, for putting up with me for so long and giving me something clean to wear too.”

“It's no problem my dear,” Toriel said fondly, then she added with a pointed look, “Though I am afraid it is a certain child's bedtime.”

Frisk cringes from their position in front of the television, and Undyne wraps an arm around them menacingly, “Oh that's not a problem! Riiight, nerd?”

~

After Frisk was sent to bed and a couple of movies later, Undyne left to go home and Toriel excused herself for bed. You still didn't feel sleepy, but rather than continue to watch movies, you curled under a bunch of sheets and watched Papyrus solve a jigsaw puzzle.

“Hey so... how do you go about pulling out your own soul?”

He stops for a second, midway in pushing a piece in place, “WELL... IF YOU INTEND ON SEEING IT, YOUR SOUL SHOULD SHOW UP.”

“That's it?” you said with real surprise. You honestly thought that there'd be more to it, despite knowing that intention was involved in monster procreation.

“HERE, I'LL SHOW YOU,” he says, and he holds his hand out. For a second you nearly grabbed his hand instinctively, but then the simple heart shape materialized and you noted that his HP bar appeared to be fuller than usual. Orange and free floating, you study it with open interest while Papyrus says, “ YOU DON'T REALLY NEED THE HAND GESTURE, BUT UNDYNE SAYS IT LOOKS A LOT COOLER. PLUS, IF YOU'RE REALLY DISTRACTED, IT HELPS TO HAVE THE MOVEMENT.”

“Kinda like the spells from Harry Potter..?” you ask more to yourself than to him, but he looks confused for a second. “Ah, I keep forgetting there's a few things you guys need to catch up with. Maybe I'll show you sometime, lots of pop references will make sense afterwards.”

You mimic the gesture. You stare at the empty air, but with nothing happening. “Um...”

“IS IT REALLY THAT TOUGH?” Papyrus asks, with his expression furrowing a little. He let his soul dissipate, and grasped the air. Suddenly you felt that psychic tug, and your light purple soul appeared with ease. “WOWIE!!! PRETTY!”

“Okay so... maybe I just need to try harder?” You leaned forward heavily on your palms, feeling a tad dizzy from the sensation of being 'elsewhere' while remaining where you're at. This was your first time seeing HP on yourself, but it looked somewhat emptier than you'd expected.

“TRY IT ON ME, I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!” he encourages. He was more interested in the shade of color your soul was. This was clearly the color that flashed in your eyes earlier, a subtle lavender glow with a lighter hue than Frisk's determined red soul.

You stared hard at him, chewing on the inside of your mouth a little in concentration. You thought about the color of his soul, and more importantly, what kind of person Papyrus was. Nice to a fault, and gentle even with as physically strong as he was. You thought about the things he likes, and the things that he'd pretend drove him crazy. He wasn't as interested in anime as Alphys and Undyne, but his enthusiasm for Mettaton's variety programming was unmatched. Painstakingly, you worked at visualizing everything he was, and with the jigsaw puzzle in your view you began piecing together the idea of his soul.

He began to feel a weak tug, almost unexpected in its timid pull. Excited for you, he cheered, “NYEH HEH HEH, YOU'VE ALMOST GOT IT..!”

And then slowly the orange heart showed up once more. You remained focused, afraid to celebrate too soon. Frustration became evident in your voice, “How do you make this look so easy?

“YOU'RE STILL NOT ENTIRELY WELL, KITTY,” he motions to hold your soul, and you nod easily. He cups it carefully, tracing the surface. The previous charge from before was still absent. You must have been doing something in your sleep, and he wondered if you had any idea about what you could do. “YOU'RE STILL MISSING SOME HEALTH. THAT MIGHT MAKE IT A LITTLE HARDER.”

You hummed in response, the sensation of your soul was still mired in that 'floating in an elevator' feeling, but his attention soothed it somewhat. “So what all can you do with the right intent anyway?”

“YOU CAN CHALLENGE SOMEONE TO A BATTLE! BUT... I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER SEEN A HUMAN DO THAT BEFORE. FRISK IS A PACIFIST,” he explains as you advance slowly to contact his soul. Making no motion to stop you, you reach out and touched it gently. You weren't sure what to think of the texture, soft and imperceptibly yielding. You rub at the edges like you would a pet's ears, and blinked in surprise as you could feel it resonate in response.

“This is really... interesting. Kinda cool actually,” you smiled softly, and then hugged it close. Papyrus flailed almost immediately, a bright blush showing up in warning before he choked out-

“W-WAIT THAT'S N-”

“AHHH..?!” you both jumped to your feet, you in shock as the soul suddenly merges into your chest. Papyrus was trying to choke down a moan at the unexpected sensation of being inside you. Your soul shimmered electrically in response and you could feel yourself heating up with an unprecedented intensity.

“Oh my god, what do I do, what do I do, whatdoIdo!!!” You squeaked in a panic, your focus completely shattered in the confusion. Almost immediately, both souls dissolved from their physical forms, leaving you both to sigh in relief.

You both looked at each other with complete embarrassment. Papyrus was shaking, a hand over his mouth and breathing erratically. You fell to a crouch and buried your burning face, muffling your voice, “I-I j-just wanted to... I don't know... just show affection. What did I just do?!”

“Y-YEAH... I SHOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING! AS YOU ARE A SUPER AFFECTIONATE PERSON!!” he takes a deep breath, trying to regain composure, “INTENT DEPENDS NOT ONLY ON WHAT YOU DO BUT HOW SOMEONE FEELS ABOUT YOU. SO IF SOMEONE FEELS A CERTAIN WAY, YOU MAY FIND THAT THE EFFECT YOU HAVE ON THEIR SOUL IS DIFFERENT TOO.”

His words hung in the air, and sheepishly, you realized that the way you felt may be more transparent to the souls than you'd expected. Which was pretty dumb of you to assume, you admitted silently to yourself. Similarly, Papyrus was feeling more and more guilty for keeping his feelings from you, even as you'd held his soul and pulled it directly in and-

“I'm sorry,” you said, still red as you barely remove your face from your knees.

“NO I SHOULD BE THE ONE APOLOGIZING!” he protested, aghast. “I SHOULD'VE- I MEAN...”

He stalled, trapped between wanting to reassure you and needing to keep quiet about the way he felt. He also couldn't help thinking about the way you'd surrounded his soul with such warmth- and blurted out desperately- 

“JUST KNOW YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG OKAY!!!” 

-Just before running from the room. You stared after him, wide-eyed and worried.

In the relative quiet and peace of the backyard, Papyrus huffed heavily while trying to coax the soul in his body back to normal. He had briefly held it, only to shiver at the near-painful shock of pleasure lancing through and released it. So now, as he sunk to the ground against the wall, he bit his knuckle and rubbed anxiously at his chest as he was left with-

-the feeling of a line being crossed-

-and you didn't know what to do, wrapped in your blankets and fumbling anxiously with the pieces of the unfinished puzzle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew well, I did label this as "Mature", and I wasn't exactly kidding. I'm gonna admit, I'm simultaneously excited and worried about how this chapter turned out. I'm really hoping I wrote this right. Of course, for those of you waiting for the teacher to get dunked on, that's happening soon I promise!


	23. Of Threats and Uncertainty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Papyrus both beat yourselves up while Sans goes to scare a conscious into the literature teacher.

Up long before anyone else was, Papyrus paged through the old dating manual from the Librarby back in Snowdin. It was only with time and much willpower that he could go to sleep that previous night with his soul thrumming in concert with his racing thoughts. Without any thought to how the way he felt would affect his soul's behavior, he'd allowed you to interact with it. So of course you'd do something like hug his soul, you were naturally affectionate! On top of that, as a human you apparently hadn't been conditioned in the nature of souls, having trouble even with the step of summoning forth your own soul.

Of course he knew about how intimate interacting with another soul could be in the right circumstances, but how did this situation escalate so quickly? In a fit of distress, he paged quickly past the stages in a relationship before closing the book roughly. One ingenuous moment, and you'd skipped right past nearly every single stage in a relationship and he couldn't get past thinking that he should've told you about the way he felt so that you'd know better, or at the very least explained more about what souls could do!

Gods, he felt guilty, and that feeling deepened as he reflected how pleasant it'd been to be encased protectively for those few moments. Knowing this, there was no way he could continue teaching you about souls. 

Pulling his scarf over his neck and then tugging it up in a movement reminiscent of your own insecure habits, he left early for classes before he had to meet anyone's eye. Maybe he'll ask Undyne to help with your training later...

~

You were dismayed to realize that you slept in long beyond everyone waking up and leaving for school or work. It was all quiet in the house, and whereas you appreciated that in your apartment with your roommates always coming and going, you were unsettled here. The first few minutes of your morning was spent pacing across the kitchen as you waited for your tea to steep.

Eventually, you adjusted to it and absentmindedly pulled up a streaming program through your laptop. It didn't take long for you to lose interest and play music instead. Unbidden, your thoughts returned to the previous night, wondering at Papyrus's hasty retreat. It had been a disconcerting moment when you accidentally pulled his soul into yourself, but you felt... warm? Not quite the way to describe it, but you were at a loss for words.

Still, you could just about grasp the context surrounding his reaction. Even after asking Toriel about the nature of sex with monsters, you hadn't realized how guileless you would be to the souls. It seems that you'd molested your best friend without even a second thought. More so, he had to know how you felt now, or else that incident wouldn't even have happened! It was no wonder he was so uncomfortable that he'd ran.

You got up and sat on the bed you'd been sleeping in the last few days, wrapping the blankets tightly around you and stared blankly in the wall, lost in thought. You began wondering if humans even looked attractive to monsters. With Undyne and Alphys together, you got the idea that form wasn't exactly a problem. Yet, humans were so clearly physical, and with next to no experience with magic it was easy to imagine that there would be a sexual disconnect.

There was no way you wanted to lose Papyrus though, you gulped down the large lump that formed in your throat. With a grit of your teeth, you shook your head roughly to dispel the sudden burning in your eyes. It wouldn't matter how you felt if you scared him away, but if you could just exhibit a little self control, maybe you'd be able to stay friends. Yeah, that was fine. Maybe it'd be a little rough going at first, but you could do it.

Having shot yourself down without even a chance, you began drawing on your tablet. Occasionally you'd have to wipe your face impatiently, in no mood for your own self-pity. Undyne came in to the house find you scribbling away at a picture of a foggy mountain top, gazing blankly into the screen as you worked on autopilot.

“Hey, I got your stuff, punk,” she told the quiet scritching across the tablet. You jumped in place, before sitting up in a scramble. “You okay, ____?”

You wrapped the blanket across your shoulders, hiding the way you instinctively tugged on your dress collar. “Yeah, I'm good. Just weird to be here alone, I don't... exactly like it.”

“Have you been taking that medicine?” Undyne frowned severely as you shook your head. “IDIOT! No wonder you look so out of it!” She growled, seizing you and with a “Hup!” lifting you up in a bridal style.

“UNDYNE NOOO!! I CAN WALK DAMMIT!” You yelled, your alarm dislodging some of the depressive funk you'd put yourself in.

“This is faster! You walk too slow!” she shot back, easily dumping you in a chair so that it screeched back from the force of your landing. She sorted through all of the medicine, finding which ones you'd been using and much to your relief, measuring out the correct doses instead of pouring down entire bottles down your throat. “You know...”

You take the medicine, as she forced a big smile on her face, a row of sharp teeth glimmering as she spoke as reassuringly as she could. “...you're going to be okay. You know that right? I mean, it can't be easy having that jerk being in charge of your grades or having to skip school really close to finals like that. But it's not the end of the world! The semester will end, you won't have to worry about toolface being in charge of your grades, and we've got a whooole summer of bikinis and hardcore beach volleyball to look forward to!”

You decided to avoid mentioning that you found the idea of playing volleyball with Undyne terrifying, “Yeah... thanks, but, what brought all of this on? I expect mothering from Toriel but you don't really,” you paused, thinking as you dug through the overnight bag she handed you, pulling out some photochromic ink wells and looking at them oddly, “...seem the type?”

“Listen, I know there's something you're not saying!” she squints her eyes at you, “When I saw you sitting there, you just looked... hopeless. I don't know what's going through your head right now, but you have to know that you're not flying solo on this.”

She hooks an arm around you, and noogies you as roughly as always, “You've always got us, capiche?!” Her smile settled into a more natural grin as you nodded. “Good! How about getting you into some regular clothes?”

“Definitely, but... why'd you dig out all the skirts from my closet?” you grumbled. “And how the hell did you find my lacy underwear?!”

“Why are you buying lacy panties just to bury them underneath your socks?!”

You managed to cobble together a casual enough outfit from what Undyne had gathered, and soon enough, Papyrus arrived. He looked mildly uncomfortable, and before you could say something, he says,

“I THINK IT'D BE BEST IF... MAYBE YOU GOT UNDYNE TO TRAIN YOU WITH YOUR SOUL.”

Even as Undyne perked up,clearly fixated on the word “train”, you straightened up from your spot on the couch, “Wait, why? I know I shouldn't have done that, but-”

“NO! I-I JUST THINK THAT MAYBE IT'D BE BETTER THAT WAY,” Papyrus was avoiding eye contact. “I KNOW YOU MUST BE DISAPPOINTED MISSING THE CHANCE TO WORK WITH SOMEONE AS GREAT AS I AM-”

Undyne looked from you to him, perplexed and suddenly worried.

“-BUT! YOU REALLY NEED A GOOD TEACHER A-AND UNDYNE IS THE BEST! SO I'LL LEAVE YOU TWO TO IT AND HERE'S TODAY'S NOTES! SANS WILL BE BY LATER WITH YOUR LITERATURE NOTES!” Papyrus all but flings the notes onto the kitchen table and then jumps out of the window- again.

“What?! BU- PAPYRUS!!!” Undyne chased after him. She returns soon after, completely at a loss. Your stomach tightening into a coil, you suddenly felt cold as you realize it's worse than you thought. 

~

Sans sat in the back seat of the classroom, slippered feet propped up and balancing across the desk. Most of the students in the late night class gave him odd looks, but many of them looked too tired to question it. The teacher in question, Dr. Carter, arrived late and already looked perpetually disgruntled long before he spotted the monster.

At the appearance of a a skeleton in your spot, the teacher seemed to restrain an outward reaction, possibly a grimace. Oh, this is going to be fun. First thing before he could even start the class, Carter sat on a whoopee cushion. The already hushed classroom fell into a deafening silence. 

“Heh... heheh,” a girl reluctantly giggled across the way, and the teacher instantly turned on her.

“Is this your juvenile trick?!”

“N-no! Sir, no,” the girl looked worried, but even as he accused her, his gaze slid across the desk rows to where Sans sat. 

He whirled away, muttering, “ 'Tis some visitor, tapping on my chamber door, only this and nothing more.”

Sans kept his easygoing grin pasted, he knew well enough that the man blamed him from the way he seemed to stalk around the classroom. Then class finally began, and he sat up straight only to bring out your borrowed literature textbook, opening it at the spine, fluffing the pages, and then proceeded to fall asleep on it. 

Class eventually ended with no stirring from Sans and Dr. Carter closed the door and nearly called it quits. He thought better of it and turned to rouse the monster from its slumber only to nearly bump into Sans to be standing right in front of the classroom door.

“I t h o u g h t y o u ' d b e s m a r t e r.”

His voice reverberated through Carter's head. The teacher's eyes widened and Sans knew he was staring at his empty eye sockets. The teacher stumbled back abruptly, obviously just trying to put some distance between the two. The lights in his eyes flickered back on, but under the fluorescent lights of the hallway they appeared weakly and liable to blacken at a moment's notice.

“guess not,” lowly, his voice returned. “tibia honest, i thought maybe ____ was just seeing things. not unreasonable to wake up scared when you're sick and alone in a dark classroom because you'd been left there by a careless teacher.”

The teacher's teeth clenched together with an audible grinding as his back hit the wall. Sans remained as he was at, but the ground rumbled once in a hollow warning.

“no bones about it, you actually locked her in there, hadn't you?” His eyesockets narrowed, shaping his perma-grin very nearly into a leer, “what for? if it's prejudice against monsters, buddy, you're targeting the wrong girl. In case you haven't noticed, there isn't any monster-like features on the kid. So what if you hadn't seen her with Papyrus? would you still fixate on her?

Faced with the disconcerting contrast between the puns and the implicit threat from Sans's gaze, Carter remained speechless. He neither answered the question, nor continued retreating. Just as well, Sans already knew he wasn't going to get a clear answer from the man himself. His soul on the other hand...

… had no LOVE to be seen. Much like the incident before, there was no clear indicator that the man perpetrated any direct acts of aggression. 

“if you'll take a monster's advice, find something better to do. as much as you may not like it, those two are gonna get together or they won't. acting like a jealous boyfriend isn't going to do anything to stop that,” he warned humorlessly, “instead, someone's gonna get hurt.”

“ A n d i t s u r e a s h e l l i s n ' t g o i n g t o b e m y b r o t h e r.”

With that final bell-like statement, Sans closes his hollowed eyes and steps past the teacher. He was gone as soon as he passed the corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was actually swimming through my thoughts a little bit as I was writing the last part, and the whole poem felt eerily appropriate. This was probably the best matched part though-
> 
>    Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,   
> “Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;   
>     But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,   
>     And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,   
> That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door;—   
>             Darkness there and nothing more. 
> 
> -The Raven
> 
> Gotta say, I'm partial to Israfel myself, but it seems like you'll never have a teacher mention it, y'know? Oh, and a little shameless beg, I'd really love it if y'all would check out my drawing of Underfell Papyrus as The Twin from Devil's Carnival! I'm not great, but just like any other puppy I'd love a head pat and a word of encouragement nonetheless! Thank you for your patience with me! <3  
> http://agraulisvanillae.tumblr.com/


	24. S_a_ D_t_r__ne_

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus and you continue to feel guilty, and your friends are definitely going to think you're idiots once they piece it all together. So, business as usual.

“What happened?” Undyne demanded, looking simultaneously annoyed and exasperated. You remained silent, but fiddled with the collar of your shirt. “Ugh, well if you can't talk with me, then you better talk to Alphys!”

“Sorry, I'm just... not sure what to say,” you mumbled.

Impatiently, she put you on the phone with Alphys and left you alone in the guest room. You fiddled with the photochromic ink you found in the bag as you stared at the phone, wondering if she even knew what your normal art supplies looked like. These were some sort of curiosity/birthday gift from Amber a while back, and the colors in the round little wells were only visible under the sun. You weren't sure where she got them, but it was possible that it was from a specialty camera or film shop of some sort.

“A-are you ok-k-kay?” Alphys asked quietly through the speaker. You gathered your thoughts and then slowly started talking.

“I'm not sure. Last night, I'd asked Papyrus about souls, and he agreed to help me but... but...” you didn't want to say it out loud. You powered through anyway. “But... I think I did something horribly uncomfortable and wrong. I touched his soul.”

“T-that d-doesn't sound so b-b-bad,” she said. You shook your head, despite her being unable to see you.

“Well no, but I accidentally... er... I kinda put it inside me?!” you squeaked. Holy crap it sounds so much worse when you say it out loud.

“OH,” she responded with that huge emphasis that meant she understood exactly what you meant. “Oh, well that... oh my.”

“A-alphys, I know it's totally uncool but I didn't know it was going to do that! I was just... I don't know,” you sighed. “I just feel so bad, like I r-r-”

You couldn't quite bring yourself to say it aloud. Ever helpful, your mind echoed 'rape'. Alphys prompted, her voice suddenly quiet as she was clued in on your thoughts, “S-so what did P-papyrus d-do?”

“He just ran out. He did that again, a few minutes ago. That's why Undyne put you on the phone with muh-me,” you answered, feeling your eyes blurring as you hiccuped suddenly. You blurted out, “I didn't know that would happen! I just wanted to hold him close!!”

“P-papyrus isn't mad at you! I-I'm almost positive he isn't!” Alphys reassured you. “M-maybe you just surprised him. And uh, trust me, t-there's no way you c-could've hurt him.”

You let out an involuntary whimper, too choked up to talk. There was dead air for a few seconds, and then, “Want to b-borrow my g-girlfriend?” she said slyly.

“OH MY GOD ALPHYS!!!” You screeched, and then a reluctant giggle surfaced. Alphys laughed with you.

“Juh- just k-kidding! We'd t-totally be borrowing you,” she teased, and with that the floodgate broke between you laughing and crying. She stayed on the line quietly as you worked out the worst of your hurt feelings into a pillow. Eventually, she said, “I-if it helps, maybe you should d-do something like write a journal entry. Even if you d-don't think anyone will see it, or d-don't want to show anyone!”

“Yeah... thanks,” you smiled halfheartedly. She sounded like she was speaking from personal experience. “I'll think about it.”

As you hung up and walked out of the room to hand the phone to Undyne, she slapped your back sympathetically on seeing your red eyes, “Hey listen, I've got to go soon. I gotta check to see if Papyrus lost his head or something, but uh... again, are you going to be okay?”

You yawned, as if tired. “Yeah... I'm just going to go sleep off this bug. The sooner I get better, the sooner you guys don't have to sit through my classes for me.”

Satisfied, she left. You could see her pull her phone out to talk to someone on her way out. You sat back down on the bed to dig through your stuff and found some old manga. One of the issues was the first comics you'd ever bought, the main character being very much into puzzles like Papyrus. You paged through it absently, thinking about writing a confession like the journal entries Alphys was talking about and burning it after.

Then, you came across the part of the comic that presented a milk puzzle. As you already knew, one of the characters tried to write a confession on a milk puzzle for a girl he liked, but the teacher takes it and tries to put the puzzle together. If the protagonist hadn't stepped in, he would've been expelled.

But... you always thought that they could've avoided the problem had they used invisible ink. Your eye was caught by the photochromic ink wells again. Invisible ink... it could definitely work. Toriel arrived with Frisk a little later, and fortunately, your mood evened out enough that you could draw with Frisk without bumming them out. Nonetheless, the way they glanced at you, you knew that they could sense something was off.

Sans showed up that night long enough to pass a recorded lecture along, “read 'the raven' and 'the telltale heart'.”

You groaned, “Why do they always assign those?”

“just lucky, i guess,” Sans glanced around and looked back at you, this time noticing the slump in your posture. “where's papyrus?”

“I dunno... home, maybe,” you failed to keep your voice even. He looked to Frisk, who'd shrugged and signed that he hadn't been here since they got home.

“ah. hey tori, i'll catch ya later,” he called to her in the kitchen, and then left.

~

When Sans took a shortcut home, he could immediately sense the change in Papyrus. Much like the way you'd been subdued, Papyrus looked completely out of sorts. He was feeding the odd yeast ooze in a jar that had taken up residence in the fridge but after washing the bowl and silverware, he just stood there looking lost.

“knock knock,”

Papyrus starts for a second and then glances back, suddenly animated into washing the only two dishes in the sink, “WHO'S THERE?”

“dishes.”

“OH GOD SANS, WHY?” he groaned, and buried his face in his arms, the gesture angled oddly against the tall sink.

“c'mon bro, just say it,” he prodded.

Reluctantly, he acquiesces, “DISHES WHO?”

“dishes not what i was expecting you to be doing tonight,” Sans finished quietly. “what's up with you and ____?”

For a second, Papyrus remained silent. Sans knew he just had to be patient, Pap never bottled things up for long. Almost like clockwork, Papyrus eventually turns and cries,

“SANS I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE COULD EVER TRUST ME AGAIN!”

Sans soothed, “calm down and start from the beginning.”

So, he relayed everything from starting from you asking about how to summon souls, to the turning point when you'd successfully pulled out his soul, and then pulling his soul inside of you. He talked about your confusion, running away and then,

“IT'S CLEAR THAT I ASSAULTED HER!”

With that final admission, he finally buries his head in his hands and begins bawling dramatically. It takes Sans a lot of willpower not to openly laugh at the idea. In fact, the whole incident would be funny except that for whatever reason, it seems that both of you were taking it so badly.

“bro, i don't think that's assault.”

“WHAT! AT THE VERY LEAST IT'S UNINFORMED CONSENT, THAT'S THE VERY DEFINITION OF-”

“sure. but she's not entirely uninformed, papyrus. i had Tori talk to her about 'it' a little.” Sans pats him on the back, Papyrus's armor making a hollow thunking sound. “and she looks sad. i don't think you made a mistake trying to teach her about souls, but you aren't doing either of you any favors by running away.”

“I S-SEE...” Papyrus manages to get himself under control after a few minutes of silence. Instead, he started to glow with embarrassment. “... HEY SANS? I NEVER CRIED.” 

Sans pats his shoulder, sniggering, “ok, pupyrus.” 

Papyrus screeches indignantly and stomps, as his chuckles gave way to a full-on belly laugh.“SANS!!!” Eventually, Sans calms down enough to say thoughtfully,

“things might be a little different between monsters and humans, but... well, maybe it's just best if you talk to her.”

~

You started sleeping in your apartment again, but not often. Despite your protests that you weren't sick and can be relied on to live on your own like a normal adult, Undyne and Mettaton frequently took you to Alphys and Undyne's shared apartment. In fact, other than the first couple of days living in your apartment when you acquired a milk puzzle, you ended up regularly sleeping over at their apartment. You were getting annoyed, between that and your own trouble writing out what needs to be said, you were stuck at-

“I like Papyrus.”

The puzzle was left in your apartment when you were out, partially scrambled as the letters dried on those pieces. The problem was, you couldn't think of any more to say before you began the next long line of sleepovers.

At some point in those two nights in your apartment, you dreamed. It was back in the meadow you'd dreamed about when you were recovering. It made sense to start with, since you were probably still chasing out the last vestiges of a fever. However as you rested in the lavender patch, sleepy and warm, you observed that there was some sort of mountain range nearby with scattered forests and a lake. Interested in this world your subconscious produced, you stood up to explore. 

As you approached the path that split off toward the mountains and forest, you decided to approach the lake first. It was wide open and clear, versus the looming trees and harsh terrain. Glassy clear and tranquil, you saw as you approached that the surface was effective as a mirror. Instead of seeing yourself, you saw one of the cats that you occasionally watched over in the shelter. The gray tabby peered back at you, eyes wide and alert with curiosity. The tail would twitch occasionally as you sat back, thinking.

As you allowed yourself to be lost in thought, daydreaming in your dream, something lapped against your paws, causing you to jump in place and crouch away warily. A piece of black seaweed pushed against the shore, puzzling you with it's presence. Why is there seaweed at a lake? Then without warning, skeletal hands wrapped across your midsection and pulled you up. Suddenly afraid to look up and allow them to see the flash of human intelligence in your eyes, you closed your eyes as your face was buried in the dark matter of the monster's chest. They gently scratched your ears.

Warbling emanated from the being, and with your face pressed against the monster, you slowly began seeing a dark violet soul as they spoke, “At e_se lit__e one, th__e is _ery litt_e t_at ca_ t_uly har_m __u in yo_r own dre_m.”

Carefully, you pull your face up to stare at this odd visitor, their face fractured indistinctly like television static. Pieces of skull and mandible had yet to build itself and you could see the internal pieces of bone across the palate of the mouth and up into the nasal cavity and into the brain pan. More black fragments and dark sludge slowly gathered as the water lapped across the shore. You pawed hesitantly at the slowly assembling fragments, “Does it... hurt?”

“No_ f__ aw_ile no_,” the warbling breaks up more heavily, leaving you to cock your head in confusion. “Y_u __st sta_ d_termi__d, _ang_r c___s, __t __ _h___ __s_.”

Unable to make anything of the sounds the shattered skull was gurgling, you began feeling yourself falling from the dream. You woke up holding your sketch book. A piece of charcoal left an arcing smear across the page, with rough sketches of hands all over. You barely remembered falling asleep practicing the ASL gestures that Frisk drew out for you. Some of those hands seemed new though, and you thought you could make out the shape of a mailbox. Weird.

About a week later, you arrived to class much earlier than early. You wanted to give Papyrus the chance to show up and talk to you, hell even if it was just about class you'd take it. He'd yet to show up any earlier than on time though, and so you'd been left to your own devices. It wasn't that he'd been avoiding you in the classic sense of the word, but other than class and occasionally guarding you during your night class, you didn't get to see him at all. The distance he maintained made you feel sick and uneasy.

You'd just about given up for the day, when Papyrus sat next to you. He was five minutes early. For a second, you almost said 'thank you' in relief, and then thought better of it. Instead, you offered the last set of flashcards for the class with a rueful smile, “Its kinda boring to study alone.”

“WELL... ACTUALLY, WE NEVER GOT TO MAKE BREAD AFTER YOU SHOWED ME HOW TO MAKE THAT SOURDOUGH STARTER,” Papyrus said sheepishly, “I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT EXCEPT FEED IT.”

Shyly, you bargained, “I really have to catch up with class, but maybe you can quiz me while I show you the steps?”

“NYEH HEH... HEH. BUT OF COURSE!” his laugh came hesitantly, a little off key. But when his gloved hands brushed yours to accept the flashcard set without flinching, you silently counted a small victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hobo Clown Sans joined The Twin Papyrus on my Tumblr, so if you're at all interested, be sure to visit! I am also making a point to declare when I update here, so if you're a frequenter of Tumblr you may want to consider checking my account once in awhile for that. Let's see... I finished writing Underfell, so the next couple of chapters will be dedicated to finishing that route. We're past the rough patches on the Soul Touching incident, so things are going to be looking up when we come back! *peace sign*  
> http://agraulisvanillae.tumblr.com/


	25. Underfell: Spider Bake Sale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans makes you uncomfortable but annoyed, Undyne makes you uncomfortable and confused, Papyrus makes you uncomfortable but kind of happy too, and then Muffet flat out just makes you uncomfortable.
> 
> And what is it with weird dominance displays?!

It had been awhile since you'd gotten Papyrus's number, and despite your concerns, F.A.N.G the cat had adjusted well to the household. His brother Sans, who apparently had to refer to him as 'boss', seemed leery of F.A.N.G and you both at first but gradually adjusted to your presence. He still avoids F.A.N.G though.

One day he took you aside, “heh, not to scare you or anything, but... are you a numbskull or somethin'?”

You blinked and cocked your head, “Not to prove your point or anything, but I don't know what you're getting at.”

You suspected you were picking up the monster's sarcastic and rather rude habits unconsciously, but unlike your classmates, said monsters didn't seem to be too put off by it. Sans for one, twisted his grin wryly, and continued “look, you seem a nice enough kid. nice family, nice friends, nice life... so it just doesn't make a damn lick of sense that you're willing to spend time with monsters, let alone my bro. i mean, have you met the guy?”

“Huh, could've sworn I have. I've only seen two skeletons around here, unless we're talking a 'brother from another mother' kinda situation,” you joked.

“yeah, you're not street,” he said with a deadpan stare. Then he sighed, “look, all i'm tryin' to point out is that you've never seen what papyrus has been through. he's killed, and he's nearly avoided being killed. that kind of thing leaves it's scars, the kind that pretty little pussy ain't gonna fix.”

“You done?” you asked, eyes narrowed slightly as you pressed your lips together in mild annoyance at the backhanded compliment. 

“nope,” he responded immediately, eyes hollowing. “i can read faces pretty well, and yours is already tellin' me you're not about to back down. that's fine. but you better take responsibility for your actions.”

He disappeared abruptly after, leaving you to glare at his absence.

“. . . Wait.” you said aloud, furrowing your eyebrows. Did he just give you a 'Don't hurt my brother' talk? That isn't- maybe? But sometimes they did stuff like that, weird dominance shit like your first meeting with Undyne where she groped your chest like right away. You were at a lost for words, thinking that she was coming onto you and entirely uncertain what to do with the situation, so you stared at her while lost in thought. She slowly removed her hands, only to suddenly clap you on the back and say,

“DAMN PAPYRUS you've found the one stone-cold bitch in this entire town!” Undyne declared.

“WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK UNDYNE,” Papyrus snarled in irritation. “KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!”

“Ufufu! Takes more than a honk on the boobs to get a rise out of you, eh? BUT HOW ARE YOU ON THE BATTLEFIELD?!” Suddenly you were separated with such force that you got dizzy from the double-presence of your physical being and your soul that you fell over, much to the collective apprehension of your new friends.

“Undyne, we've t-talked a-about this,” her girlfriend, Alphys chided. The little mad scientist studied you up and down, with a flush taking over her features that didn't make you feel much better. “H-humans d-don't fight that way. J-just swords and g-guns and stuff.”

You barely managed to excuse yourself from fighting by explaining that you weren't allowed to have weapons on campus and didn't have any guns or swords. Papyrus looked absolutely alarmed that you walked around without carrying any lethal weaponry, but Undyne took it into stride. She thought you were doing something weirdly bad ass, a sort of 'come at me if you dare' move.

That being said, you've learned pretty quickly to dodge her or suffer. You also learned that keeping a poker face was your best option when dealing with anyone that wasn't Papyrus. For awhile you remained reserved around Papyrus too, keeping some of your interests to yourself, but that changed soon enough.

You were waiting to meet Papyrus and began watching a domestic anime on a whim, something about how the girl couldn't understand the otaku she married but loved him anyway. You had gotten immersed, giggling away and losing yourself in the cuteness of it when Papyrus somehow managed to appear behind you.

“WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING?”

You managed to stifle the sudden squeak of surprise and instinctively slammed the laptop shut like you'd been caught watching something dirty.

“Ah! N-nothing, it was just some a-anime I heard of a while back,” you stumbled.

He studied you closely, and you started trembling in mortification. It was more to do with how he maintained a tough and somewhat detached air than anything else, that made you want to instinctively hide the fact that you were interested in an anime- or any media for that matter- that was even remotely mushy and sweet.

“YOU SEEMED TO LIKE IT. FINISH THE EPISODE BEFORE WE GO.”

He made himself comfortable, and as the jig was up, you slowly opened your laptop back up and hit the play button on it. Unfortunately, even with the show being less than five minutes, it was abundantly clear that the characters were married and comfortably in love. You couldn't even focus on the last minute, as your thoughts were frozen in rabbit-like terror that your monster friend would mock you, or even just turn and walk a-

“NEXT ONE.”

Your thoughts interrupted, you jerked to stare at him, “What?”

“DID I STUTTER?” Papyrus grumbled. Hardly believing what was happening, you slowly tapped the touch pad to get the next episode playing. And the next, and the next... before you knew it, you'd finished the season even though you kept expecting him to turn away in disgust. You packed your stuff and turned to leave, glancing shyly at your skeletal friend.

“WHAT'S WITH THAT LOOK?” he snapped, but this time you didn't jump. You did avert your eyes though, playing with your shirt collar as you'd unconsciously flushed.

“Nothing, I just... didn't think you'd put up with ah, that,” you explained vaguely. You were wondering if he'd actually enjoyed watching it as well.

“WHY DID YOU TRY TO HIDE?” his question was sharp and demanding, but there was an injured tone to it. Maybe you hurt his feelings..?

You gulped but managed to answer honestly, “With how things were in the Underground, I guess I just believed you'd think I was too weak or dumb if you saw me watching something so domestic. There's no cool action scenes or violence...”

“IDIOT,”

You flinched, but then raised your head uncertainly to meet his eyes.

“I'VE SEEN YOU HANDLE ANIMALS FEARLESSLY ON A DAILY BASIS. THERE CAN BE NO DOUBTS ABOUT YOUR POWER, BUT YOU ARE AN IDIOT IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE TO HIDE FROM ME,” he averted his eyes, arms crossed. “IN THE FUTURE, I WOULD SUGGEST SHARING YOUR INTERESTS WITH ME IMMEDIATELY.”

“So... did you..?” Like a game of Pong, you slowly batted the idea around until you finally processed it. “You liked it?”

“WHA- OF COURSE NOT!! DON'T BE RIDICULOUS!” he broke out in an angry red flush, and you pushed a hand to your mouth to subdue an incredulous giggle. He liked it?! Even so, you decided to keep that fact to yourself lest he refuse to watch another anime with you again.

Nonetheless, watching a show that bluntly addressed sex, with Papyrus right next to you was probably the most exhausting thing you'd ever experienced. Even more so than playing paintball later that day with him, Undyne, and Frisk who'd dodged every paintball shot with supernatural agility, although that was tiring nonetheless. 

Getting home after, you'd flopped on the couch to just 'enjoy' the experience of feeling like a giant bruise. It took you about an hour for you to peel yourself off to dig in your fridge, and you began scrambling four eggs for your appetite and muscle repair when your roommate screamed behind you.

“OHMYGOD THERE'S A SPIDER RIGHT THERE!” she pointed to the fridge door handle, and you sighed. A fuzzy little spider like a tarantula clung tenaciously to the kitchen towel strung through it.

“Way to live up to the hysterical female stereotype,” you rebuked with a huff. “It doesn't even look venomou..? Wait, is that a piece of paper it's waving?”

“Nope. Nope. Nope. I am done! I can take monsters, but I draw the line at sentient spiders!” she threw her hands up, 'noping' back into her room. You shook your head and smiled ruefully at the spider.

“Roomies. Can't live with them, but it's too damn expensive to live without them,” you accepted the paper as graciously as you could, and read the note.

“Word is that you run a charity bake sale. Meet me tomorrow 5 AM sharp.”

There was no place or any other details, and even though you asked the little spider about who sent it, when, and why they wanted to meet, the little thing did it's best to shrug unhelpfully before scuttling away to whatever dark corner it entered the apartment from. You finished pouring the eggs into the pan and cooking, trying to figure out what to do but it was no good. They didn't even leave a number for a burner cell phone. Your best conclusion was to pick somewhere popular like the Student Center on campus and hope that they could find you there.

In the meantime, you finished breakfast for dinner, showered off the paint- oh geez, those paint balls made it look you got jabbed with a broomstick- and decided to get some rest.

~

You were floating in your sleep, dreaming about darkness and stars and warm water. It was like deep sea had met the universe, with no visible end to the ocean you drifted in and the sky was equally unyielding with its deep black and encrusted with stars. The water was calm and reflective, except for the ripples that you echoed across it and as you turned upright, you realized that there was something glimmering deep down. You dived downward, trying to see it more clearly.

It appeared to be another world on the other side of the ocean, one that was snowy and bright. You could feel the sounds of a muffled scuffle resonating through the water, and flashes of black and red. You couldn't swim deep enough to get closer, but you thought you could make out the shape of sharpened bones and spears sailing through the air. The battle looked intense, but upon recognizing the skirmish being between Undyne and Papyrus, you relaxed.

After a few moments, you straightened yourself, content to allow your natural buoyancy to do most of the work and bring you back to the surface when you suddenly stopped in place. Unexpected and alarming in it's abruptness, you kicked to free yourself and found yourself caught on some sort of twine. The source of it led down and kept you underneath the surface of the midnight ocean, so that you grabbed the thread to lead you closer to the glimmering underneath the surface. Suddenly there was a second pull on your wrist, and then the other. You were caught in the middle of the water, with no choice but to-

“Wake up,”

You woke up with a gasp, still halfway convinced you were going to drown as you attempted to pull your arms... down? You blinked against the night cover, trying to make your eyes adjust more quickly. The spider girl that you'd seen that day during F.A.N.G's adoption perched comfortably on your hips, smiling in satisfaction. Your elbows were angled above your head, hands suspended from real thread that led up to the ceiling. Pulling your legs up in a defensive curl was similarly futile as they'd both been secured to the bed frame.

“Tsk, tsk, it's not polite to be sleeping through our meeting,” she giggled. “Fortunately, I'm willing to forgive you seeing as I'm early.”

“How did you get in my apartment? And what time is it?.. and why am I uh,” you tugged at your restraints. “... tied up?”

“Safety precaution dearie, you never know who wakes up swinging,” the spider girl leaned forward conspiratorially. “Speaking of safety, I followed in your roommate as she was coming in late tonight. She lacks a certain... diligence when locking the door.”

You groaned out loud this time, “Are you kidding me..?”

“Oh, but don't you worry dearie! We have business to discuss,” she straightened up and crossed a leg... -arm? Limb? Across the other, assuming a dignified position. You would've done the same, but there wasn't much variety in the poses you could make other than crucified and slightly less crucified. At least there was enough room for you to ease the ache that quickly developed in your shoulder joints somewhat. “I hear you run the occasional bake sale for a charity you work for. Now normally, I'd prefer to kill off the competition-”

You grimaced. Really starting to regret not having a sword or gun right about now.

“- but word is that you made the treats yourself, and may I be honest ____?” She leans forward again, to squeeze your chest and pet at your hair where it had been mussed and you were seriously getting mixed signals about this situation. “Humans don't seem so keen on buying their donuts and cider from a spider. Your bread on the other hand- such an ordinary thing too! -was good enough that an ex-member of the royal guard not only took interest but bought you all out. Curious, wouldn't you say dearie?”

You decided to make a small snap at a limb that caressed too closely to your lips, and put on a sneer in order to dissuade further advances. She giggled again, and reclined against you fully. There wasn't much more you could do against the posturing, and you both knew it.

“You've got guts running a bake sale so close to my business, but I can respect the power of universality. I want you to show me how you cook for humand monsters, and in return I'll pay you for your efforts. As a bonus, I won't even kill you afterwards!”

“Is this the illusion of having a choice?” you asked suspiciously, bucking her back roughly as she leaned too closely to your neck.

“Ahuhuhu! Absolutely, but I'm glad you'll see it my way,” she smiled, amused at your antics. “I shall leave my business card here, and will expect you to appear at any given point on the weekend with a cookbook at ready.”

Much to your relief, she cut your restraints before strolling out of your room. You sighed and rolled your shoulders, trying to remove the sharp pain between the shoulder blades and encourage circulation back into your extremities. Glancing at the alarm clock blaring 3:50 AM in the darkness, you realized there was no way anyone would show up an hour and a half early just for a regular business discussion. Besides, she still hadn't introduced herself, although the business card read “Miss Muffet's Bakery” in the light of the digital clock.

Somehow, you were relieved that she was more interested in scaring you than seducing you. You weren't sure how one goes about turning down a predatory spider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo Underfell actually wouldn't break down into one part here, you guys will get an extra chapter of this next week to wrap up this AU, then we'll go back to normal for a little while before I visit one of the other AU's. Be sure to mention your favorite AU if it hasn't been said already!  
> Underfell (3/4) -Complete-  
> Underswap (?/3) -May be extended for equal face time with Underfell-  
> Mafiatale (?/1)  
> Bittybones (?/1)  
> Bitty!Reader (?/1)


	26. Underfell Finale: Spider's Bite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What could Muffet want?

“Hey, a spider from Muffet's Bakery visited me last night,” you told Papyrus as he walked you to classes one day. “Should I be concerned?”

“WHAT?! YES OF COURSE YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED, THEY'RE PROBABLY ONE OF THE SHIFTIER MONSTERS YOU COULD HAVE THE MISFORTUNE OF RUNNING INTO,” Papyrus yelled at you, arms held stiffly at his sides and you covered your ears to reduce your risk of tennitus. He rubbed at the scratch scar over his eye, a clear sign of unease. “I WANT A FULL DETAILED REPORT OF THE INCIDENT.”

You nodded, and slowly filtering out the irrelevant details like the dream you were having before your rude awakening. You finished up by saying, “She is offering pay, so I might as well show up, but I thought I'd see if there was anything I needed to know.”

Papyrus frowned more and more severely, until you were starting to worry that he was going to do something rash. Instead he scribbled something on a piece of paper and shoved it toward you.

You were confused, “I thought I already had your number..?”

“THAT'S AN EMERGENCY NUMBER TO THE CAMPUS GUARD LINE. SINCE THERE IS NO NEED FOR A ROYAL GUARD, SOME OF US ARE ORGANIZING FOR AN ESCORT SERVICE,” Papyrus glowered at you. “USE IT.”

That's... a tad overboard. At least he wasn't going to pick a fight with the spider though. He didn't look happy at all, and during the rest of the walk you couldn't quite get him to stop gritting his teeth. He was starting to put you on edge, and reluctantly, you finally said,

“Look, I might be a little nervous about showing up... if you have time, do you think you could walk me there the first time or two? It's not too far from the shelter I volunteer at,” you could already feel your embarrassment just asking. It's not like you were three. Geez.

“I SUPPOSE I COULD MAKE THE TIME, JUST ONCE.” Papyrus put up a his usual front, but his body language betrayed him, shoulders slumping in palpable relief.

~

“Oh man, MUFFET is interested in that girl? Papyrus, you better be keeping an eye on your woman there!” Undyne snorted, flopped on his couch with an extra charcoaled plate of spaghetti. Sans and Alphys on the other hand, were hungrily scarfing down pizza.

“FUCK OFF!!! SHE'S NOT MY WOMAN!” Papyrus screeched, a high blood-orange heat playing across his cheekbones.

“you're not fooling anyone boss,” Sans snorted through a pizza slice. “just 'cuz you ain't cheesy enough to shout it to the rooftop doesn't mean it's not obvious.” Papyrus narrowed a particularly nasty glare at him for the pun.

“D-don't go losing her, I-I'm s-still updating my list of a-anime!” Alphys stuttered crossly, “She's t-too relaxed b-by half. You've heard of w-what Muffet's bite d-does right?”

“besides, kill?” Sans snarked, risking getting impaled by Undyne. 

“YEAH YOU SHIT, BESIDES THAT!” She shouted at him. 

Papyrus narrowed his eyes distrustfully, “WHAT ARE YOU GETTING AT?”

“According to Alphys's security cams back in the Underground, Muffet's bite can have two different effects!” Undyne explained. “She can either kill you, or... well. What exactly does happen Alphys?”

“S-she induces a high f-fever in the body much like what occurs d-during a monster heat,” Alphys said with a blank expression, clinical in her analysis. “This is symptomatically difficult to differentiate from the deadly venom she uses, the two toxins originating from the same family. It makes it, ah... troublesome when deciding what anti-venom to use.”

“what in the name of fuck?!” Sans curses, sweating apprehensively. “is that how the spider clans keep fucking like rabbits even when the partner gets eaten after?”

“Hey, gotta find some way to get it done I guess,” Undyne shrugs. “It's a spider eat spider world out there.”

“SURELY YOU COULD JUST USE BOTH ANTI-VENOMS AND BE DONE WITH IT?!” Papyrus asked, trying to keep his cool but Alphys shook a finger at him.

“D-don't be an i-idiot, anti-venom is toxic if you don't use it correctly.” He sat there staring at the toasty pasta as the reality of the situation sunk in. Seeing this Alphys snorted, “Yeah. It is t-that bad. B-be on g-guard. And g-get her playlist for m-me will you?”

“GET IT YOURSELF!”

~

You don't know quite what happened, but Papyrus escorted you not just to the bakery, but picked you up from there too. It'd gotten to the point where you'd suspected there was something he wasn't quite telling you, but unfortunately it couldn't be riddled out from simply watching his body language. He was clearly hostile to Muffet, visibly bristling whenever she waved him off and you were sure she was antagonizing him when you weren't looking as well. The tension was palpable, but the pay was good and despite the feeling of Muffet's gaze crawling down your back, you were able to fall asleep easily at night as long as you checked to make sure your door was locked.

When you dreamed once more, you were able to swim through unimpeded by Muffet's arrival. This time, you were aware that it was a dream, although you still held your breath as you swam to the bottom. This time the scene was quiet, no one in sight. You swam all the way down, feeling your perspective shift even as you came to the icy barrier between you and the other world. You slammed your fist on it, feeling the tough glass-like wall sting at your knuckles. Despite knowing it was a dream, your natural instincts pleaded for you to panic as you ran out of oxygen. Frustrated, you pulled your arm back and slammed a fist against it again.

Shit, you just pushed yourself back. There was no way to ground yourself against anything and generate any real force. You slowly floated back, resigned to accidentally killing yourself in dream and starting over.

CRACK. 

You shuddered at the unexpected sound reverberating in the water. Spinning around, you were trying to figure out where the breach in the ice was. Then the world shattered, and you were yanked out of the water with such force that you'd gasped and choked on the rivulets streaming down your face and into your throat.

“YOU!!! YOU IDIOT, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING IN A FROZEN POND?” Papyrus propped you upright as you bent over in a hacking fit. “HOW DID YOU EVEN GET HERE?!”

“W-where's h-h-here?” you managed to sputter through the coughing fit. You began shivering violently in the frosty wind, so much that it was impossible for him not to notice.

“THIS... IS SNOWDIN FOREST. I USED TO PATROL HERE,” he said, distantly. He pulled you to your feet, and then positioned you so that he could lift you piggyback.

“I'm okay, this is just a dream...” you mumbled, but you didn't quite feel okay. It was REALLY cold.

“I HOPE YOU AREN'T JUST SAYING THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE EXPERIENCING HYPOTHERMIA,” he huffed. He managed to force the door to a two story house open and stomped to shake off the worst of the snow. He dumped you unceremoniously on the couch that jangled upon your impact, and marched briskly up the stairs while you tried to regain a sense of your surroundings. The place looked suspiciously like their apartment in real life, but a lot more beat up. 

“Nah,” you said distantly as you took in the surroundings. A rock on a plate that looked like it'd seen it's fair share of blunt force trauma, the carpet was torn up in places, and there were more than a couple hastily patched up walls. All things considered, you were amazed the couch was as intact as it was. Papyrus came back in victoriously with a huge down comforter and dumped it on top of you. You nearly managed to burrow out when you were picked up again and squeezed roughly.

“NYEH HEH HEH, IT APPEARS I'VE CAPTURED A HUMAN AFTER ALL!” He declared in a manner that you barely recognized as teasing, and scrubbed the blanket provoking a muffled protest from said human inside.

“Hey, that stings!” you managed to unearth yourself enough to give him an indignant look, hair hopelessly tangled from the treatment.

“GET USED TO IT,” he scoffed, “I'M NOT LETTING YOU GO AFTER ALL.”

You blinked worriedly at him, did he think this was back Underground after all? But he smirked and said, “IF THIS IS A DREAM, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS IS GOING TO TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE!”

You were lifted again, blanket and all, only to be placed on top of his chest and cuddled. You looked at him with both eyebrows raised as he avoided your gaze. You grinned as you realized he was finally putting away the tough guy front, “Huh, guess I really am captured.”

You did your best to curl in to a more comfortable position, your shivering slowing down for the most part. Other than the ambient humidity your wet clothes and body temperature produced inside the comforter, you returned to the same dream-like comfort you were accustomed to before. Drowsily you asked, “Are we really going to fall asleep in a dream?”

“IF YOU MUST,” he muttered softly. “I FOR ONE, WILL BE STAYING UP A LITTLE LONGER.” You nuzzled your face into his chest, and slowly, your consciousness sunk-

-and rose back into the waking world. With a sigh, you twist off the blankets that you'd sweated into and started getting ready for the day. On the way to Muffet's bakery, you quietly informed Papyrus,

“I dreamed about you.”

“Y-YOU DID WHAT?! HOW WEIRD,” he responded with a little jump in his tension. You looked away from his face with a smile threatening to break out on your own face. You didn't know how, but you were starting to think that he might have dreamed about you too. As you approached the street that has to be crossed before approaching the bakery, you managed to thread your fingers through his.

“Just to be careful,” you said, smiling slyly at him. You could feel his stare burning down as you turned away, but you squeezed his hand and loosened your grip. For a few heartbeats, there was nothing, but then his gloved fingers twitched and reluctantly the squeeze was returned. You crossed the street with matching flushes that neither of you saw from your averted gazes.

“STAY ON GUARD,” he cautioned as he dropped your hold. “I WILL BE BACK AT THE END OF YOUR WORK SHIFT.”

You thought that things passed uneventfully enough, but as you'd relaxed into the routine of cooking, there was one accident. You were stirring a pot of rapidly boiling strawberry preserves with the canning equipment sanitizing the jars next to it. You had to maintain this hard boil for about 10 minutes, and the concoction rose so far up that it was boiling too close to your grip on the long spoon, and a large glob bubbled onto your hand.

“AH-!” you yelped and then gritted your teeth to exhale slowly. “Miss Muffet, will you do me a favor and wrap some ice in a paper towel?.”

“Ahuhuhu no problem dearie,” some spiders had already scuttled off, and she leaned over to examine the damage, “Hm... let me lend you a hand and look at it for a second. This just needs to be stirred, correct?”

“No way, I'm not letting the preserves win this one,” You growled, narrowing your eyes at the concoction. “They just made this personal.”

Muffet giggled and plucked your dominant hand away despite your protest, but you grabbed the spoon with your other hand stubbornly, the position forcing you to stir clumsily in an awkward angle. She said in a singsong, “At least the offender has cooled somewhat~!”

“Don't do what I think you're about to do,” you groaned. The next thing you knew, she was sucking the jam off your hand and you cringed as you felt a sharp throb of pain. “Hey, watch the nerves there!”

“Such a baby,” she cooed. “I'm just cleaning the wound off.”

She viewed the newly formed scrape with satisfaction, and pressed the ice pack that spiders barely managed to drag along into the burn. The strawberry slosh finally finished boiling and you scooped the foam out before demonstrating all the steps involved in canning them so that she would be able to use them in the later jam and cream cheese danishes.

The burning sensation didn't fade away, even with the ice pack applied, and after a point you excused yourself to examine the damage in private. The skin was puffy and sensitive, and the very center appeared to be blistering. What was unusual though, was the way the veins underneath the injury appeared to darken. As you adjusted the light on the injury, you noticed that there were dual breaks in the skin across the blister.

With a sinking feeling, you realized that her fangs actually pierced the skin. Freakin' monsters and their weird dominance games. You tried to pull out your phone, clumsy from trembling, but it dropped on the floor. You crouched to pick it up just to be beaten by one of the spiders. You thanked them as you were handed the phone and tried to stand up only to fall on your butt with trembling knees.

“Dearie, you're not looking so well,” Muffet offered a pair of hands, but you scooted back and tried to pull yourself up. Your sweaty grip slid across the counter, but then tenuously you worked your way up. A strange fever seemed to radiate from your arm though, and it wasn't long before your head was swimming.

“What did you just do to me?” you said lowly. She giggled, and pulled the phone out of your grip, a disarmingly gentle motion.

“Nothing you ought to be concerned with for the moment. Now, which number would Papyrus respond the most immediately to?”

~

Papyrus was out for blood, absolutely furious and worried. Sans followed behind at an accelerated shuffle. Papyrus slammed the bakery door off its hinges, and demanded,

“WHERE THE FUCK IS THE SPIDER?!”

Sans noticed the spots of webbing all across the floor of the bakery, carefully stepping around them even as Papyrus was too pissed to do anything so delicate. He ripped away any sticky threads with a bone summoned with ease.

Muffet materialized behind the counter as she told them reproachfully, “I hope you plan on replacing that door.” 

“ENOUGH CHITCHAT. I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU LIMB BY LIMB AND PLACE YOU UNDER A MAGNIFYING GLASS SO YOU FUCKING BURN UP TO ASH,” Papyrus snarled.

“Ahuhuhu I knew you'd get to the point, dearie. Your reputation certainly is well-deserved,” Muffet's eyes glittered dangerously, and before they knew it, their souls were turned solid purple. 

The best way to deal with Muffet's magic was to take advantage of the threads of the web, Sans knew, but his brother tore up the webbing, and stomped through the spiders in an almost rhythmic version of one of his tantrums. He soon reached Muffet, his magic crackling threateningly before her soul fell blue and forced her to fall from the web she'd climbed up into.

Sans for one, simply slid across the strands of thread, summoning bones to rip free strands that stuck stubbornly and threatened to accumulate. He groaned to himself as a monstrous muffin roared and charged him. Fortunately, the slobbering wild eyed pastry was a little top-heavy, and after a few moves Muffet's pet keeled back. Its previously unseen short little legs twitched spasmodically in the air.

“muffin to it,” Sans cracked, chuckling at its inability to vault back up.

The battle ended abruptly as Papyrus successfully stabbed a bone through one of Muffet's lower eyes, and pinned her head against the wall. Disturbingly, each of her intact eyes blinked calmly as her HP dropped just below the halfway point.

“WHERE. IS. SHE,” he growled, twisting the bone in place.

“In the kitchen, but she still needs the antidote-” Muffet warned, but Papyrus cut her off with a brutal yet quick yank to unpin her from the wall. Her head wound left a trail of violet hemolymph dripping from the wall.

“WHICH KIND?” 

“There's a bottle in the locked cabinet to the left, unmarked. Don't mix it with the cabinet on the right, that will contain the wrong anti-venom,” she dangled the key that hung from her bloomers which Papyrus ignored as he brushed past as ominous as a storm cloud. The sounds of glass being shattered could be heard. Her eyes narrowed with the exception of the punctured socket, clearly annoyed but making no motions to stop him.

“well, aren't you forthcoming today,” Sans observed. She closed one of her many eyes in what could be interpreted as an unsettling wink before she chugged a bottle of her own spider cider. 

“Sansy-Pansy, I donut know what you're talking about, ahuhuhu!” she covered her mouth to hide the mischievous smile. Sans raised the upper ridge of his eye socket in shock at her cheer. 

“ya didn't use the lethal stuff, did ya?”

“Dearie, I would rather destroy a stained glass window or three,” she sighed as the pierced eye began knitting back together at an accelerated pace. Rendered speechless, Sans was still piecing together her motives when Papyrus stepped back out with you supported on his back. Your eyes were glazed, and you were breathing shallowly, a dark flush staining your cheeks. Broken strands of web hung from your clothes, drifting softly with Papyrus's movements. The way you slumped over his shoulders screamed vulnerability and helplessness in such a way that Sans briefly considered Muffet's motive as a sexual predator before dismissing it.

“SANS WE'RE LEAVING! WE NEED ALPHYS TO MEASURE OUT THE DOSE,” Papyrus declared. 

“right boss,” Sans responded. Papyrus left in a hurry, but Sans had one last more question before he took his shortcut. “who put you up to this?”

“A gentleman ought to never ask, and a lady never tells,” Muffet said evasively. Her smile glimmered dangerously in Papyrus's wake. “Do come back and repair a few things will you?”

He chuckled, sweating nervously, “no promises.” He promptly took a short cut out before Muffet could attempt to seriously kill him.

~

“I was an idiot after all...” you mumbled lowly. Your body felt overbearingly hot now, the sole exception being the damaged nerves in the burn on your hand. It was like a cold patch of obsidian in the sweat and hormones streaming off your body in a sickly haze. “I didn't realize it until last minute... she took advantage of an injury and disguised her bite in it. ”

His eyes flickered unwillingly to the exposed burn, before snapping back straight ahead. He was marching you up to Alphys's apartment nearby, already having ordered Alphys to prepare a syringe. 

“SHUT UP! DON'T GO TALKING LIKE THAT,” Papyrus growled. You were hyper aware of sensation produced by his voice rumbling, and your eyes lidded heavily for a second. “SHE WAS LOOKING FOR A FIGHT RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING.”

Without consciously meaning to, you sought out the source of the vibration past his scarf and gently mouthed the vertebra of his neck. He jolted ramrod straight with an oddly choked sound, and then narrowed his eyes dangerously as it occurred to him what toxin might've been flowing through your veins. “DID SHE TOUCH YOU?”

“Hummm... not entirely sure. My head's been all foggy. Not sure when you got here either, to be honest,” you rambled. “Considered grabbing a knife...”

Suddenly, you were dropped to the sidewalk, the concrete bruising your tailbone. Papyrus whirled around, and stood there glowering, “TRY GETTING UP,” Perplexed, it took you a few moments to understand what he was asking, and slowly you tried to push yourself up. Your arms shook violently as you braced yourself, and even as you got your knees underneath yourself, you couldn't get your muscles. Papyrus huffed as you nearly keeled over, a cold sweat breaking out from your effort. He knelt to your level, his burning gaze rooting you to the spot, “YOU CAN'T, CAN YOU? THEN DON'T YOU DARE, FOR EVEN A SECOND, THINK ABOUT GETTING INTO A FIGHT YOU CAN'T FINISH. DON'T YOU DARE-”

A flash of something foreign passed through his eyes, not quite like worry nor fury. It was... ah, almost lost it... maybe... it was fear. “-GET YOURSELF KILLED BEFORE I CAN EVEN ARRIVE TO PROTECT YOU. PROMISE ME, IF THIS EVER HAPPENS AGAIN, YOU WILL DO EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO STAY ALIVE.”

Even the nonsensical beat of your thoughts could dislodge the logic of what he was trying to show you. You couldn't even stand in this state, let alone fight, “I... will. I'll wait for you.”

He turned in front of you long enough to grasp you under your thighs, and you hooked your elbows across his clavicle as you were picked up once more, “I'LL HOLD YOU TO THAT.”

The rest of the walk was quiet, but rough on you. Despite the dull throbbing pain at the base of your spine from the fall, you couldn't help but focus on his hands holding your thighs up, and the way you were mounted across his back. You squeezed your eyes closed, and tried to tune out the swaying motion as he carried you.

Alphys let you both into her apartment without the doorbell even needing to be rung. He dug into a pocket to hand her the anti-venom before easing you down on the computer chair that she normally sat in. Alphys huffed in annoyance, but otherwise didn't protest. On his knees in front of you, he studied you fastidiously, looking for any additional injuries. You stared into his face until his eyes flickered back to yours, and then leaned forward-

“DON'T,” he held you in place by the shoulders. He looked conflicted, “I... SHIT. I DON'T WANT OUR FIRST KISS TO BE LIKE THIS.”

Quickly, almost so that you thought you imagined it, he pressed his mouth against your cheek before standing up abruptly. You looked up questioningly, and he scowled, “W-WHAT?!”

Alphys offered you a crooked smile as she approached with needle in hand. It gave a little squirt as she flicked it and shook any air bubbles out, as you whined deep in your throat. With a predatory smile she said, “D-distract her will you, Papyrus? This is s-still nasty stuff.”

“IS THAT NECESSARY?!” he demanded skeptically, but you tensed up as she swabbed your burn. 

“R-relax ____, or it's going to hurt that much more,” she warned, but it was clear that you wouldn't be able to. Sighing, Papyrus pulled you up for him to sit down and then brought you onto his lap, facing him. Instinctively, you burrowed your face in his scarf and stayed there as an extra sharp pain was added to the dull island of damaged tissue. You could feel fluid shooting through your muscle and dissipating in a painful throb. Alphys applied a new bandage to the injury and then attempted to shoo you both from the computer chair only to get a fierce glare for her trouble. 

Slowly, you pull your face out to examine the patch. After assessing the damage you wrapped your arms around his chest, and leaned in, rolling your hips briefly to get comfortable and then stopping abruptly in shock at the electric hot twinge in your groin. The intensity of the sensation woke you up to your surroundings somewhat, although your awareness was quickly followed by an intense yearning. Pulling your knees more tightly together, you settled back carefully, and promptly hid your face in his scarf again with a low whine. Mistaking the sound for pain, Papyrus rubbed slow firm circles between your shoulder blades.

In the end, it took you about half an hour after the anti-venom was administered, to come off of the induced heat. You promptly fell asleep after, forcing Papyrus to remain seated even as Alphys waddled off to answer her cell.

“Y-yes? Well... as it turns out, h-human heat isn't quite as uh, um... domineering as monster heat. B-but! I wouldn't c-call it a t-total failure! Y-yes, I'll pay for the d-damages and extra for keeping the subject intact...”

~

“well, obviously muffet was getting paid right? even with as kittenish as she was acting -heh- you'd know all about that, right? as i was saying even with as kittenish and coy she was acting, muffet's m.o. has never been to do somethin' without pay,” Sans informed his unblinking audience, tilting a bottle of mustard back and forth as he talked.

“Mwrowr,” F.A.N.G. seemed to agree.

“so if you think about it, who d'ya think of all of us monsters, would pay muffet to piss my bro off?”

“Mwrowr.”

“heh, right. i'm meow-t the type to point paws, but if i were a gamblin' man, i'd be bettin' on alphys. 'specially after the amalgamates, i wouldn't put it past her to be pullin' some sort of... unethical psycho-sexual experiment. hell, that'd be tame in comparison, right?”

“Mwrowr,” F.A.N.G. demanded. It stared dolefully at the empty food dish, and then glared back up at Sans. “Mwrowr.”

He shook his head, “you're a regular oprah, aren't ya?” Regardless, he pulled out the bag of dog treats and shook a couple into the bowl.

“Mwrowr!”

“listen, i'm not pourin' water in there, that's fuckin' disgusting,” he took a swig from the bottle.

“Mwrowwwr...”

“hey don't go dissin' mustard 'fore you even tried it!”

~

You were nodding along to a song waiting for everyone to show up for laser tag when the headphones were lifted off your head. You looked up to stick your tongue at Papyrus, who looked mischievous as opposed to his frequently standoffish nature. He started rapping along to the segment, making your jaw to drop at the way he kept beat with the barrage of rhyming lyrics.

“Have you been listening to my music without me?” you accused. He shook his head and pointed at the headphones with a smirk, mouthing 'I can't hear you' as he sat down next to you. You narrowed your eyes playfully.

“Fine. Then you probably can't hear about how I'm going to capture you, then take you here right in front of all the children,” you said smugly as Papyrus flushed his tell-tale blood-orange blush.

“W-WHAT?! YOU WOULDN'T DARE!!!” He protested, pulling the headphones down to his neck. You swung a leg over his waist to straddle him before giving him the same serious look you gave Undyne when she dared you to ballroom dance with F.A.N.G. He began sweating immediately, “W-WAIT A MOMENT-”

You smiled sweetly, “You're right, I wouldn't.”

You affectionately headbutted his forehead, nuzzling reassuringly. He almost relaxed underneath you before you seized his scarf and pulled him into a long kiss. His face lit up red-orange, and looking shell-shocked, Papyrus moved his jaw speechlessly. 

You laughed and murmured close to him, “How's that for a first kiss?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this is actually 2 full sized chapters by my standards. All of the plot and its implications absolutely refused to compact but I decided I'd rather let y'all have an extra large chapter than let it drag out. Seriously though Papyrus, Muffet! What the heck man! X'D IN ANY CASE, I'm not sure what inspired me to use the "deadly aphrodisiac" trope. So, this ends the Underfell storyline for CoC!
> 
> Got a question though- I'd been peppering the Extras chapters through the story as I go along, but would you guys rather have it all at the end once the main Chemistry of Cooking storyline plays out?


	27. Monster Candy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You attempt to make candy with Alphys, and finally find a solution for your puzzle conundrum.

“OW!” you yelped suddenly.

Alphys reluctantly shuffled into the kitchen doorway to check on you, “A-are you okay?”

You'd gotten distracted thinking about Papyrus again, and the monster in the dream, and ended up holding your hand and giving the knife on the cutting board a resentful glare as a result. It wasn't even a few seconds before your blood started to well up and you marched over to run water over it. “Yep, just a cut, admittedly the first time I've ever drawn blood cooking...”

“O-oh, well you can eat a monster candy for something like that, here I'll get some...” Alphys went to a cupboard and handed you a little piece of hard candy that you weren't sure what it was supposed to taste like... but upon a lick, you could discern a non-licorice flavor. You popped it in your mouth and sucked on it thoughtfully as the cut mended up almost as quickly as it had happened.

“How do you make monster food anyway? Does being human bar me from being able to make it?”

“I don't k-know,” Alphys stuttered. You cocked your head and looked at her. In a few moments of silence, you both could feel your curiosity grow.

“Could you show me how?”

Soon enough, you'd had a recipe scavenged up from the Undernet and had a few supplies scattered across the place including sugar, corn syrup, food dye, a candy thermometer, and a large pot. You mixed water with the sugar and corn syrup up and were supposed to heat the solution until the thermometer measured 300 degrees.

“O-okay, so here's w-where you're supposed to use magic. You'll need to p-personally influence the flames. If it h-helps, you can p-pull out your soul and watch the process,” Alphys instructed. Concentrating hard, it took nearly a minute before your soul materialized. Floating above the pot, it seemed to pulse in response to your exhaled sigh.

“Why is that so hard?” you grumbled.

Alphys says to you, “You're new at this r-right? P-plus as a human... it might not feel as i-intuitive. B-but hey! You d-did it! Now, t-try to focus on the fire. I'll s-stir so it doesn't b-burn...”

“Mm, okay...” you watched the flames flickering across the bottom of the pot. A few heartbeats in, and nothing seemed to happen. You rubbed the collar of your shirt, slowly digging your nails in as you began feeling hesitant wisps of steam cloud your vision. 

Exerting yourself, you pushed to manifest yourself more, sweating heavily before a pale pallor trickled into the flames. Holding your breath, you stayed on it, watching sharply as the fire drained of blue and fell into a light purple.

“Y-your HP!!!” Alphys squeaked, but you paid no attention to it. Your head was swirling, losing itself in the steady flickering and you quickly exhaled before breathing in sharply again. “S-STOP!”

She grabbed your arm, jolting you out of your reverie, and you nearly fell into her. Lightheaded from hyperventilating, you grabbed a counter to save you both and blinked away the threatening dark blooms in your vision. You offered a shaky thumbs up once you stabilized, “Whup! I'm good, I'm back. What happened?”

“Your HP p-plummeted s-so suddenly!” she wrung her hands fitfully, naked worry overcoming her expression.

“OH. Wait, how much?” You struggled to still your trembling hands long enough to visualize the semblance of your soul and check but Alphys stopped you by holding your forearms. With a slight tug, she had you sit down on a kitchen chair.

“D-don't exert yourself! Your HP fell to 6... ACK!” she finally remembered the candy and stirred the pot rapidly. With practiced ease, she added her own magic to the stove top flames which had temporarily returned to normal. It finally hit 300 degrees shortly after, and so she poured the solution into the prepared candy sheet.

“So... tired,” you mumbled. You could almost feel yourself dropping off into sleep right there, having to sit on the edge of your seat to ward off snoozing.

“W-well, you did take a little bit of your health and put it in candy. It looks like you were only able to make a few pieces...” Alphys frowned as she studied the hardening pieces of candy in the tray. True to her words, you could only see a rainbow sheen in roughly half the candy that was made. Without having the chance to add food coloring, the other pieces of candy were uniformly clear.

“Why does it smell so...” you wrinkled your nose at it. “...herbal? Have I been drinking too much tea or something like that?”

She eats a small piece. “N-not exactly. It doesn't taste like monster candy at all. B-but it does make me feel sleepy for some reason.”

“Well, you did have to step in and buffer some of your own HP for me. I guess you end up with something different with a human's soul... if that's even the same thing at all.” you both yawned. “Let's figure this out after naptime.” You settled down to a classic movie in a collective mass of blankets and pillows, with you already dozing off by the time a particular line was spoken, 

“That day she was amazed to discover that when he was saying “As you wish”, what he meant was “I love you”...” 

~

Undyne arrived to you and Alphys sleeping together on the floor with the makeshift piles of blankets, odd pillows knocked to the sides here and there. She smiled, before taking a picture on her phone and setting it as the new Alphys-themed wallpaper for the week. “Aw, nerdlets in a blanket...”

With a wicked flash of mischief, she considered posting it to the Undernet under the caption “Don't u wish ur gfs were hot like mine” but with all that's been going on lately, Papyrus probably wouldn't have found it very funny. 

…

Nahhh, serves him right for taking so long to make up with you anyways. She posted the photo, caption and all. Looking around, she noticed that the movie was still playing, and the scent of something like wildflowers wafted from the kitchen.

Alphys stirred almost right away, likely in response to the camera sound that couldn't be muted on Undyne's phone. Her moving caused you to twitch and slowly stir awake as well. You blinked sleepily, and then stretched, yawning in with a small high-pitched sound at the back of the throat. Now that Undyne learned of your nickname, you did seem rather kitten-like. Still not as cute as an embarrassed Alphys, but it wasn't exactly a fair comparison. Undyne dropped a couple of large bags she was carrying and kicked them behind the couch before flopping onto one of the pillows next to Alphys.

Once you'd both fully woken up, you explained the candy experiment to Undyne. Despite having eaten some of the candy you'd tried yourself, your HP didn't increase more than what you'd been able to regain from a normal nap. However, when Alphys checked herself for any changes, the effects became very clear.

“Your HP increased beyond your limit!” Undyne declared, examining Alphys's fluorescent yellow soul.

You glanced up from staring critically at your soul, its HP still low from the day's earlier activities, “Limit?”

“Y-yeah you're right! I've got about 15 points more than where I've a-always b-been!” Alphys exclaimed, her eyes wide and alight behind her glasses with fascination.

“Is that unusual?” you asked, trying to divine the exact significance of what they were saying.

“It's not unheard of, there's a couple of hotel in Snowdin and the MTT resort back in the underground you can go to for that kind of boost,” Undyne explained. “But there's no food that does that. Hey, how much HP did that use up?”

You held up your soul morosely, “I used up more than half just to make a couple of pieces.”

Undyne's eyebrows flew up in shock, “Only that many?” Her face fell as you and Alphys nodded. “Oh, so making a bunch of those isn't exactly possible.”

“It's not easy but...” You looked at what you did manage to make, but this time with a sense of excitement. You could make monster candy! Sort of, but it was pretty close to what you wanted it to do. You said firmly, in fact nearly scolding yourself for such a weak yield, “I could make more tomorrow.”

“Hold up!” Undyne slammed a hand on your shoulder and you could almost swear your HP dropped fractionally. “We're training tomorrow! And uh, I've got to tell you something. I don't think... you're going to like hearing it.”

You instantly jerked to attention at her tone, watching her exchange uncomfortable looks with Alphys. “What happened?”

“Well uh, how d-do you feel about sleeping over here? Kinda for, u-um, the rest of the semester?” Alphys asked. She didn't seem like she was about to answer you directly. You barely got a word edgewise before Undyne blurted out,

“NGAHHH!!! How she feels about it doesn't matter, sorry ____, but it's too dangerous to stay there!”

Her words fell on dead silence as you processed this. Finally you managed to speak past numb lips, “Why?”

Alphys looked to her as well. Undyne ran a hand across her ponytail and she admitted tersely, “Someone's been going to your apartment.”

“A-are you sure it's not just my roommate?” you tried to reason. “She uh, sometimes forgets to lock the door.”

“Well, when I first went to get some stuff from your place, the door WAS unlocked even though I was borrowing your key. I thought it was weird, so we might've... planted a camera??” Undyne admitted.

Alphys shook her hands in a panicked pacifying way and stuttered out, “N-NO P-P-P-PLACE W-WEIRD!!!”

“Yeah! It was just buried in your laundry hamper underneath some dirty socks and angled to the door so we could see if anyone was going into your room-”

“UNDYNE!!!” Alphys squeaked, mortified. “T-that's n-n-not 'n-no p-place weird'!!!” Despite yourself, you started cracking up a little at the two's antics.

“Scandalous!” you snorted, unperturbed by the idea of Undyne going through your socks. Then the implications of the situation hit you. That's why they were forcing you to sleep here! You wished they mentioned something earlier, but then you were preoccupied with Papyrus at the time. “Wait, so there was someone caught on camera?!”

Undyne snapped her teeth with an audible 'click', “That's what's so bad... the camera isn't there at all!!!”

“W-WHAT?!” Alphys shouted, while you gawked at Undyne.

“You're kidding,” you said as a cold feeling passed through your spine. “Then the footage is..?”

“The memory card is gone with the camera. We couldn't rig anything elaborate up like what Alphys had Underground without it being obvious, but apparently it was spotted anyway! Gah, I wish we just went ahead and used the one with a direct feed to a computer,” Undyne growled.

“Shit...” you couldn't help but curse. Darkly, you asked, “Is there anything else I need to know?” They exchanged looks again, and you sighed. Reluctantly you rolled your hand to convey 'out with it'.

Alphys pulled up a small set of files on her computer with the dates you recognized as being from the couple of days you were home. She clicked on the last day before they started the 'sleepovers', and fast forwarded through the footage. The time read 2:29 AM when the lights were out and you were likely sleeping. About the same time the number flipped 2:30 AM was when the door slowly drifted open, and the darkened human figure quietly slipped through the room. Your breath caught, and Alphys fast forwarded the footage again until the figure passed the camera and through the doorway.

The time was 3:12 AM.

Someone was in your room while you were sleeping for over 40 minutes. You shivered at first, and then the shiver developed into a full tremble that you tried to hide by burying your hands in the blanket. You couldn't say anything, you just stare at that dark footage before Alphys hurriedly closed it.

“Yeah so... sorry about not saying anything. But like you said, we had to make sure it wasn't your roommate,” Undyne said, hesitantly patting your shoulder. You nodded, breaking your long stare with Alphys's computer monitor to look down. 

“I... get it. I don't think I'd feel safe going back to my apartment either,” you mumbled. Undyne nodded, and then briskly brought out some luggage you recognized as half your stuff from your apartment.

“I grabbed a bunch of things that seemed important or likely to be stolen so... just tell me if there's something missing,” Undyne dropped them near you, not so much a demand for you to take them but to let you know they were there. Nonetheless, you grabbed them to pull them out of the way.

“Thanks, I'll let you know. I... uh,” you managed to meet their worried gazes, and smile weakly. “Can we play a game or something? I don't want to think about...” You waved vaguely at the computer. “Um. This... thing. Yeah. I feel like it's giving me a headache.”

“Y-yeah,” Alphys murmured sympathetically.

The apartment didn't stray far from your mind even as you were mashing buttons in a versus match against Undyne, but you began to daydream about the movie you slept through.

“As you wish...” you recited underneath your breath, your voice drowned out by the game soundtrack. You weren't sure why you were hooked on that thought until later that night when you dug out the milk puzzle and photochromic ink wells from your luggage. Seeing the half completed puzzle, something clicked. Your uncomfortable reality finally dropped away as you wrote,

“I shouldn't say I love you. So when the feeling takes me, I'll just say 'You're too cool.'”

You repeated the phrase under your breath, at first feeling somewhat childish. It's nowhere near as suave as the original refrain, but it'd definitely be weirder if you started saying “As you wish.” You said it again, and gained a little confidence. They had the same number of syllables, at least. You finished disassembling the puzzle as you drew on each blank piece and hid the box by shoving it back into your luggage.

When you curled up to go to sleep for the night, you closed your eyes only to see the dark footage playing out, the stranger in your room. Your eyes flew open, and hugging a pillow more tightly than you normally would, you murmured once more- 

“You're too cool.”

Fractionally, you relaxed again. Your last self-soothing thought before falling asleep was of the morning you woke up held close to Papyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, so taking into account everyone I've talked to about the AU Extra chapters, the majority of people who spoke up seems to enjoy having the AUs all through the story as an occasional break. However, I really don't want to just leave the Readers who are more invested in the main story wasting their time or getting disappointed by checking in that week and just seeing that the story updated without knowing what that update is. So, here's the schedule I've been loosely following-  
> Updates are on Thursdays, meaning the next update will be on July 21st.
> 
> 4 Chapters of Undertale main story  
> 1 Chapter of AU
> 
> Wash, Rinse, and Repeat unless expressly mentioned otherwise. That places our next AU chapter about the 31st chapter. I really hope this helps out for everyone!


	28. Put Them Back Together Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for training!  
> ...  
> God help you.

You found yourself sleepless after waking up 4 hours too early. Wide awake on the bed that turned into a conveniently easy to draw cube when you compacted it, you remained like that for at least 30 minutes before giving up on going back to sleep as a bad job. Instead you pulled out your sketchbook and decided to take advantage of the extra hours of time sleeplessness had granted you. It was off and on, but you couldn't help but think about the monster you'd dreamed about over a week ago. Vaguely, you remembered the odd way their body seemed to be shattered into pieces, the pieces of their skull gradually collecting and yet untethered by any physical force.

You began drawing, roughly at first but as you forced yourself to recall more details of the dream by detailing the knee high lavender fields and starting from the beginning that you began exploring, you slowly traced the dream to paper from your mind's eye. One page's worth of rough sketches, then another for clarification. The dream was unraveling into its own reality on the third page and with it the monster's appearance became clearer. Almost as if there was a fly, you physically brushed your own forehead in annoyance at the static that threatened to obscure fragments of skull or flatten them out like a 2D image.

Determination gave way to inspiration as you slowly began tracing the pieces of the skull to their proper places. Would you be able to recognize who it was if you treated it like a jigsaw? You don't think you'd met any skeletons besides Papyrus and Sans, but it was possible that you were just desensitized and simply didn't consciously notice monsters anymore.

Finally, you glanced at the clock. Right, finally time to start moving around and get ready for classes. Best eat something energy-rich, you're going to need that for all of the finals reviews later. You also needed to plan ahead for later on in the day, if you knew Undyne, training was not going to be easy even if she knew you were exhausted.

~

You were looking at the trampoline dubiously, not at all expecting your day to end up here. Even with the very unintentional nap during statistics, you definitely were not prepared for this particular scenario. This couldn't possibly end well.

“Well okay, so MAYBE training normally just includes the Mad Dummy, but Asgore just got this SICK trampoline so we're gonna make this a challenge!”

You climbed up onto the edge of the trampoline as the Mad Dummy just sat there, and you eyed it strangely until it spoke, “What. WHAT. WHAT?!”

You nearly fell off the trampoline in shock, as much from getting yelled at as seeing it come to life. Flowey, who was perched inside a tire swing with a board inside to keep him from falling in, cackled at your reaction, “Oh good, I was afraid this was going to be boring.”

“Oh! Wait, I'm supposed to hit you?” you asked hesitantly, your reservations about this whole exercise tempting you to climb off and just walk away while you could.

Undyne rolled her eyes, “Duh.” as the Mad Dummy said simply,

“It's a living.”

They seemed resigned to their lot in life, but you weren't sure you were resigned to the same thing just yet, “Can't I just hit something less sentient?”

“No way, how are you going to learn to hit a moving target?!” she demanded. You really wish this didn't have to happen on a trampoline of all places. Frisk apparently wasn't on the same page, as they already climbed up on the ready. “All right punk! Watch how we do it!”

Frisk directed your attention to themselves, and then initiated the battle. Everything drew on a monochromatic scheme that made something in the back of your head twist. There was something familiar about this, as their red soul blinked into existence. Instead of fighting though, Frisk used a series of complex dodges from the Mad Dummy showering pellets at them, bouncing easily from one place to another on the trampoline. You got the idea that maybe you didn't have to try so hard if you could just use the trampoline like they did.

“Your turn!” Undyne yelled as Frisk back flipped off the trampoline.

This was not the case. The time it took for you to bounce from one place to another with Mad Dummy showering pellets at you was always a fraction too slow, and you just weren't quite as agile. Your soul which apparently hadn't fully recovered after waking up too soon after took more and more damage. 

“DON'T JUST DODGE YOU IDIOT, ATTACK! YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE AT THIS RATE!” Flowey yelled with the frustration of a true backseat driver.

“Stop antagonizing!!! I don't even know what I'd do to an animate dummy anyways! Like, where do I even hit?!” You squeaked as a missile whistled past your head. “WATCH THE BRAIN I NEED THAT FOR FINALS!!!”

You did your best to focus on your alternatives, but Check, Talk, Imagine, and Daydream seemed remarkably unhelpful. Desperate for a better option, you tackled the Mad Dummy just for its top half to easily detach and slide back in place as you rolled past the edge of the trampoline and flat on the ground, knocking the wind out of you. You could hear Flowey laughing his ass off, and if you weren't so busy trying to suck air back in your lungs, you would've thrown a stick at him. 

“way to wind her up and knock her down,” Sans's voice floated off somewhere past your field of vision. As usual, the shorter skeleton seemed to appear and disappear at a moment's notice and today was no exception. 

You climbed back on, and cautiously eyed Undyne as she moved the Mad Dummy aside, “NGAH C'MON!!! How are you going to defend yourself if you never do anything?”

Frisk tapped you from the edge you were rapidly scooching yourself close to, all sorts of bad feelings coming from the spear she was holding. They signed slowly for your benefit, using letters for words you weren't familiar with yet, “Try an A C T I O N.”

Running away seemed like a pretty good option right now, but you lived with Alphys so you'd have to face an encounter again much sooner than later, “Okay...”

Then your soul suddenly washed into a green and you were absolutely trapped in place, “AHHH WHAT THE HELL?!!”

“Look, you have to learn to face your fear head on!” Undyne scolded, having read your facial expression. “No running away!”

“Oh geez, oh geez, oh geez” you babbled as you cringed at the spears being thrown in your direction. A shield riveted itself to your arm from nowhere, and you instinctively crouched behind it. You could feel the spears deflected from it, and you started to piece together what was happening. The first turn, and you managed to take no damage. For the first time, you started to feel some measure of control, as you realized that you could swing this shield in different directions. Undyne beamed as you'd braved standing back up from your defensive crouch.

“See? Now are you going to just stand there, or are you going to learn to kick some ass?!” Undyne cheered. Your soul returned to its original color, leaving you with no shield but with all of your mobility back. You considered your options again, and finally selected “Imagine”.

Thoughts of the shield you had from being turned green gave you confidence, and soon you had your own shimmering purple shield anchored to your forearm. You ducked behind it again, but you had to move around as Undyne flew from one spot to another to target your exposed sides. You quickly modified a grip for you to hold as you realized you forgot to add a method to keep it from wobbling side to side as spears rained down. You lost a couple of points of HP as a couple of spears successfully passed through your shoulder and thigh. You tried to Daydream next, but it left you vulnerable to attack as your HP climbed back a few points. Undyne waited patiently enough, yet the ACTION left you with the odd side effect of feeling dazed and out of it. She easily threw you off the 'arena', your shield disappearing on impact.

Frisk kindly helped you to your feet as Papyrus hopped onto the trampoline, utterly absorbed with the sparring, “IT'S MY TURN!” He must've arrived while Undyne was keeping you distracted.

All and all, you considered your first attempt at fighting pretty pathetic, especially as you watched Papyrus and Undyne go at it with bones and spears. It was clear that Undyne was going easy on you, doing her best to be encouraging and allowing you to adjust to the pressure of battle in a way the Mad Dummy seemed unable to. You were startled when not only did Papyrus's soul fall green, Undyne's soul turned blue simultaneously. How did they do that?

While they continued sparring, you were resting and began working on your sketchbook again. Taking the approximate measurements from the drawings before, you slowly drew together each piece of the skull. It wasn't anywhere near as good as actually having the person in front of you, and you had more than one moment where you realized that you 'guesstimated' a piece in the wrong place. At least you didn't have to put it together all the way from the jaw, but you were growing extremely frustrated when it appeared that something was missing, or just flat put together wrong. You couldn't riddle out what was missing that created the deliberate gaps across where the right eye would be or underneath the left eye.

In the process of turning over the pieces in your mind, frustrated enough that you were tempted to bite the inside of your cheek, you missed the fact that someone was watching over your shoulder.

“what on earth are you doing?”

You glanced up to Sans, initially calm until you saw his facial expression. The lights in his eyes hadn't gone out completely but they were mere pinpricks of light, barely maintaining their existence. In a panic, you realized how gory it must've looked for you to be sketching and manipulating what was essentially an exploded skull. “Oh god Sans, sorry! It was just someone I was putting together from a dream.”

You winced as soon as the words came out. There wasn't a weirder way you could've put that, was there? He held his hand out and you paused with uncertainty. What was he going to do with it? You didn't want him to rip it, even if it was scary or offensive. No, it was important that this didn't get destroyed, you reasoned, after so much work in one day. Sans saw you trapped in your momentary paralysis, and moving with a slow peaceful deliberation, he sat down next to you. 

“i won't make ya. just take a break from using that... what is it exactly? inspiration? it's tapping your hp,” Sans negotiated. You felt your panic lurch in a whole different direction than before.

“What?!” you focused on materializing your soul. Aghast, you realized that it was at a mere 5.7 HP. Your head swam as you were forced to acknowledge your ragged state, brought back out from inside your head. Your soul phased out accordingly.

“incidentally, it doesn't cost monsters to use their magic normally. nor frisk. so why are you having such a rough time?” Sans asked hypothetically. You both knew you wouldn't have an answer to such a question. “never mind. you don't have to give me the picture, but can i take a look?”

Your sense of reservation was gone now, subdued. You held the sketchbook out, and inserted your fingers between pages to flip to the very beginning. Sans was quiet other than to ask you to turn the page. Normally indecipherable, you were able to read him as he scrutinized the scenery in the first pages. Taking a long look, he faintly shook his head, legitimately perplexed, before getting you to turn back to the exploded skull puzzle pages. 

“just to be absolutely certain... you're not just taking any anatomy classes, have you?” he asked directly, completely serious. No puns, no fooling around.

Quietly, “Not since AP in high school. Do you know this person?”

It was his turn to pause. You watched for any and all subconscious cues, alerted by this unusual conversation. Finally, he said hesitantly yet honestly, “... i don't know how to answer you. but...”

He tapped on the latest page, across the crevices you'd been troubled over, “that part is right.”

You were both silent, as you processed everything he'd told you. With as little as he said, it was still a lot. He all but confirmed that this was a real person. 

You couldn't be certain what they were doing in your dreams, but they looked like they were in bad shape. Sans eyed Papyrus walking over and smoothly flipped the sketchbook to the pages with the scenery, alerting you to the implicit warning. Papyrus isn't supposed to know about this? You barely had time to question it before Papyrus leaned over curiously, “WHAT'S KEEPING YOU BOTH FROM TRAINING?”

“sup bro,” 

“Hey Puppy, I just need a breather is all,” you greeted as Sans snorted. You blinked at him once, before you realized what said. “WHA-! Dang it Sans!!! Now you have me punning without even thinking about it!”

“HE DOES THAT,” Papyrus grumbled. He seemed like he was about to say more, almost sitting down next to you when all three of you heard an unholy screech of indignation from the tire swing. Alphys and Flowey were talking, the former seemingly somewhat uncomfortable doing so while Flowey just looked annoyed and incredulous.

“PAPYRUS WHAT THE FUCK?!!”

“Language little Flowey!” Asgore scolded from his place at the patio table, who'd been reading and sipping at tea. Papyrus looked puzzled and a little worried.

“MAYBE I SHOULD SEE WHAT'S WRONG...”

Sans stood up with him and nodded, “good idea bro,” as he turned to head inside. His gaze rested on you for an extra moment, and he nodded almost imperceptibly in the direction of the door. Papyrus was already going over to see what Flowey was screaming about. You grimaced as you stood up, your muscles stiff and sore after being knocked around, and followed wearily.

“thanks for keeping quiet, i just wanted to ask for you to keep me in the loop,” Sans told you, once safely out of earshot. He was casually rooting around in the fridge of the kitchen and ended up digging out a really old looking baggie of pizza slices. “want one? you'll probably feel better.”

You shook your head, eyeing a strangely discolored vegetable in the cheese, “I think I'll stick to monster candy, thanks.”

“your loss.”

Meanwhile, Papyrus was getting the strangest lecture he's ever had in his life. “You IDIOT! HOW THE HELL IS IT YOU CAN LITERALLY GET INSIDE ANOTHER PERSON AND STILL BE ABLE TO BELIEVE THEY DON'T LIKE YOU?! AND THEN!!! YOU GO AND TOTALLY-”

Alphys slowly shrunk into a ball as everyone gawked at the scene. Maybe gossiping with Flowey wasn't her brightest idea ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have y'all ever seen an articulated exploded skull before? I honestly want to draw an exploded skull Gaster at some point, but man oh man that'll be an intense project. Especially I think getting in all the right identifying characteristics piece by piece so people know what they're looking at. Next chapter's going to be... preeetty long I think.  
> In other news, my cat's been trying to co-author my chapters when I'm AFK so if there's any... weird patches, let me know. She also opened the Undertale game from my taskbar while I was typing away. I think she wants to help. :'D


	29. Finals Confrontations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone's asking for a bad time, and this time it's not Sans that'll be giving it to them.

You trudged up the stairs of the library, breathing heavily as you reached the top. Normally, climbing up these stairs wouldn't wind you but you were exhausted. The last week of finals had been pushing you to your limits, and you were stressed to the point of your nerves feeling taut like a live wire. On one hand, you still weren't sleeping. Its not that you weren't trying, but every time you started closing your eyes you thought you could see a shadow pass through the room and you were awake again, studying the contours of the walls and ceiling and looking for any sign that there was an intruder. After a point, you'd given up and dragged yourself up to study for your bacterial genetics exam.

To make things worse, you weren't eating today. Every time you thought of attending the last literature class alone for the final exam, you felt vaguely ill. You packed trail mix, fresh fruit, and cheese sticks just in case that knot in your stomach relaxed long enough for food to sound appetizing but the feeling tightened up at the thought instead. You knew you looked like shit, but you hoped Papyrus wouldn't probe too much. Everyone looked like shit during finals after all.

Your attention was brought away from your personal misery as you heard someone shouting in the dead quiet of the library. 

“I really don't fucking want to see you here! YOU'VE FUCKING BEEN HERE LIKE EVERY DAY! It's distracting as hell, especially looking like Superman's goddamn corpse.” 

You silently observed the guy screaming his head off at Papyrus, spittle flying as Papyrus politely listened. For a brief second, you entertained notions of walking in straight away to say something or do something in his defense. Then common sense kicked in- Papyrus wouldn't want you stepping in to 'save' him, and you were too tired to keep your temper in check anyways. The situation could only go downhill with your interference. You took a deep breath, and forced yourself to relax as the guy continued to rant. At the end of it, Papyrus was finally able to get a word in.

“I APOLOGIZE FOR YOUR DISTRACTION, AND I WISH YOU LUCK ON YOUR FINALS,” Papyrus smiled. “HOWEVER, I'M WAITING TO STUDY WITH SOMEONE, SO I MUST STAY HERE A LITTLE LONGER.”

The guy let out a strangled little scream of rage, and stomped off, grabbing his backpack to storm off. Keeping your face perfectly straight, you made a point to slam your shoulder into his as you passed, he swung around to give snarl soundlessly as you recognized him from your food science class and he recognized you. In a tense moment, you thought he might take the bait and swing, but he turned back around as you stood your ground and stared him down. Fucker.

You sat down next to Papyrus with a small sigh, and smiled tiredly at him, “Doing all right there?” you asked softly. He nodded tersely, his signature smile wobbling for the briefest second.

“P-PERFECTLY FINE,” he cringed, hearing how loud he sounded in the still quiet library. Regardless, as the scene had wrapped itself up, anyone watching turned back to their studies in their respective corners. 

“Hey, that was pretty amazing,” you nudged him gingerly with your elbow, gauging his reaction. “Especially right now, I think a lot of people wouldn't have been able to smile and wish someone well.”

You paused as he slowly smiled, reluctantly but genuine. Good, so he wasn't totally put out. Putting yourself to the test, you managed to stutter out for the first time-

“Heh, yeah, you're r-really too cool.”

You looked down to your backpack to pull up your class notes, and avoiding acting out in any way that'd make your statement seem suspect. Papyrus nodded this time, “OBVIOUSLY! BUT WE REALLY OUGHT TO GET STUDYING, ESPECIALLY SEEING AS YOU HAVE TO BE IN CLASS LATER ON TONIGHT.”

“Yeah...” you responded. You began comparing notes, sharing speculation over what was likely to end up on the exam, and reviewing over flashcards. After zoning out during the flashcards more than just a few times, Papyrus looked directly at you, his brow ridges furrowing.

“KITTY, ARE YOU DISTRACTED BY WHAT HAPPENED EARLIER?”

You shook your head quickly, “No, no I don't care about that jerk. I'm just-” You paused to reflect on what to tell him. Sleeplessness or skipping meals? You hedged cautiously, “I just haven't eaten for awhile is all.”

He gave you a stern look, “ARE YOU CRAZY?! IT'S ONLY COUPLE OF HOURS BEFORE YOUR EXAM! YOU SHOULD BE EATING SOMETHING. NOT TO MENTION, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVEN'T BEEN SLEEPING EITHER...”

Ugh, you should've just said you hadn't been sleeping while studying all night. Now you're just making him worry unnecessarily. You grimace, “Well... who has slept lately?”

“LET'S GO,” he started packing the notes you'd both had on the table, “NORMALLY I'D INSIST ON MAKING SOMETHING GOOD, BUT YOU REALLY DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME BEFORE YOUR EXAMS... SO FAST FOOD WILL HAVE TO SUFFICE.”

He made a face as if it was a terrible fate, but he herded you to your feet anyways. You were aware of a few different gazes watching you both leave and a few audible sighs of relief. It set you on edge, and you almost whirled around to pick a fight. However, your irritability couldn't outlast your exhaustion. You nearly fell asleep as he drove, soothed by the sounds of the road, but it wasn't long before he parked and you jolted back awake. You rubbed your cheek as you glanced up. “Grillby's?”

“THE FOOD HERE'S GREASY BUT IT'LL DO IN A PINCH,” Papyrus informed you. You stumbled out of his convertible gracelessly, still somewhat disoriented from nearly drifting off. He stood close to you after that, as if afraid you might pass out until you were inside. The place smelled smokey, and you couldn't quite place the source of the smoke to one of the dogs, the grill, or the fire elemental bartender. Sans was sitting at the bar, chatting up one of the monsters up but looked up curiously when Papyrus sat next to him pulling you in the other seat next to him.

“sup bro? it isn't nine o'clock yet, is it?” he greeted, then saw you slouching over the bar across from him. “hey ____. you're starting to look more skeletal than papyrus and i here.”

“'m fine,” you mumbled. “Sleep when finals are over.” Or at least until your exhaustion overwhelmed your fear of being stalked.

“HEY GRILLBY, WILL YOU GET AN ORDER OF FRIES AND A BURGER? I'LL TAKE A MILKSHAKE,” Papyrus said but you hurriedly flailed when you realized he was ordering for you, feeling queasy at the idea of that much food.

“Uh, no just the fries,” you gulped anxiously. Papyrus gave Sans a despairing look before turning to scold you. Sans shrugged and told the bartender with a wink,

“i'll take the burg grillby.” 

“LIKE YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY HAD ONE TODAY SANS!!”

They bickered, or rather Papyrus bickered as Sans deflected him with puns and one-liners, as one of the dog monsters nudged your elbow unexpectedly. It was fairly small dog, almost like a Pomeranian, but it somehow managed to jump in the seat next to you. You stared at it uncertainly, and it scooched forward until both paws were on your lap.

“Do... you want to be petted?” The enthusiasm of the resounding yip convinced you to give it a shot, and you scratched its ears. Apparently dog-like monsters liked petting as much as normal dogs, and you broke into a smile seeing its tongue loll. Then unexpectedly, the dog jumped into your lap to give your face a full thorough lick. “Blechhh! Hey knock that off!” you laughed. You were still busy trying to avoid extra licks from the overexcited dog when Grillby set your plate of fries in front of you. 

At first, you gave the plate a wary look, but then you felt your stomach growl a little. Relenting, you decide to give it a chance, and grabbed a bottle of ketchup just to have Papyrus switch condiment bottles on you. “SANS BOOBY-TRAPPED THIS ONE,” he grumbled, giving Sans a look.

“you don't know that,” Sans grinned, clearly amused. You had an idea what was going to happen, and just unscrewed the bottle completely, letting a puddle ooze out on your plate before screwing the cap back. Sans actually looked mildly disappointed, “hey, where's the trust?”

“I trust you. I trust you to professionally jape everyone you know,” you gave him a knowing smirk, and swirled a french fry through the ketchup. 

“oh, right,” he commented, winking cheekily, “that's probably for the best.”

Papyrus was hovering in his own way, watching intently until you starting to eating. After a few bites, you were relieved to find that instead of nausea, you began feeling voracious instead. Papyrus visibly relaxed seeing your interest in food pick up, and focused on sipping the milkshake. The burger Sans ordered came soon after, but he scooted it past Papyrus instead. You accepted it with an exasperated look at the two.

Papyrus had enough experience with Sans to know when there was something more going on than what was on the surface. Studying with you revealed that you were distracted and distressed, you second-guessed your answers even on old flashcard sets and more than once he caught you sliding forward and then jerking upright as you'd fought remain alert. As much as it bothered him that someone called him someone's corpse, as he was very much alive thank you, it was much more concerning that you hadn't been eating. What on earth were you thinking?

~

Soon enough you had to enter the literature classroom. You weren't particularly keen on entering alone, but Papyrus had already done enough for you that day, despite him having an equally rough day.

“See ya later,” you told him lowly. “And stay safe.” You moved to hug him, and then paused as you realized you were still trying to give him space and keep things comfortable between you two. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you kept the need to act out unacknowledged. 

Papyrus merely frowned, noting the way you held yourself back as an afterthought. “STAY SAFE?” He wanted to ask, but you slipped into class looking as disheartened as you had much of the day. He looked to the door, and then came to a decision.

~

When your teacher handed you your essay prompt, your lips curled into a silent snarl, as you mouthed “Really?” to yourself. 

“What is the role of literature in civil rights? Cite 3 different examples as discussed in class.”

You took a deep breath. Okay, no losing your temper now. Just answer the question, nice and easy, and resist the temptation to literally punch your essay in the man's face. You began focusing your attention on an outline, with your chosen sources. Before you knew it though, the essay developed into a long rant with two extra stories cited as examples, and both test hours had flown by. Just a few minutes before Dr. Carter called the exam, you set your pen down, the last words of your conclusion staring up at you.

All together, you had written six and a half pages.

Your eyes flickered up to his face, but he didn't make eye contact. You hesitated as you walked, expecting something to happen, anything. There was only one other person left in the room, staring at their page with a strained look of concentration, not writing anything at all as if they were trying to remember something. You slip your essay in the stack, but Dr. Carter didn't look up. A few more tense seconds passed, and then you walked out the door. Noisily, you exhaled the breath you didn't know you were holding.

You were finally done. No more needing to be escorted to this class, or trying to listen to a lecture from someone who couldn't butt out of your life. You were relieved. But then as you were walking, considering never seeing your awful teacher again, you realized that the shadowy figure in your room might have been him. No, no way, right? But who else would it be?

Your breathing picked up. A teacher wouldn't know where you lived-

-but wouldn't it be easy to find out?

You greatly disliked your teacher for putting you through the trouble he had, but that could be just you using him for a scapegoat just as he was likely to blame your monster friends for your troubles, you tried to reason. But of course, that led you to realizing- This wasn't some nightmare that just visits in the shadows, this is a person who could visit you at any point in the day isn't it? They can walk up to you, talk to you, laugh with you, even reach out and touch you as if they were never in your room in the middle of the night. 

You weren't sure when you started running, but you stopped abruptly as you got a hold of yourself. You could sense your panic attack peaking as you hyperventilated, and quickly you slipped into a bathroom to let it happen.

Breathe slowly now. After so many chemistry classes, you could remember that the cause for passing out when hyperventilating is the blood pH rising as you released too much carbon dioxide from your system. You regained a little control recalling the fact, and then began reciting more facts as you practiced breathing.

Inhale slowly.

Many fruits contain natural pectin which can be utilized by boiling them down with lots of sugar.

Exhale slowly.

You can make monster candy, even if it taps your HP, it's super effective when used on others.

Inhale again, pause, exhale again.

You are not helpless. You can make a shield in battle, and maybe even do more with time.

Inhale again, pause, exhale again. Papyrus's worried voice called through the door,

“KITTY? ARE YOU IN HERE..?”

Most importantly, you were not alone. You stood up cautiously from your tight crouch, wobbily and tired, but for the first time since you saw that shadowy footage you were feeling different from that nervous rabbit-like fear. That feeling coiled tight and glowing red like searing coals, and an unbidden growl rumbled deep in your throat.

How dare they threaten you in your own house, your own school? This was your territory, your stomping grounds. This was where you've been making great memories with your friends, and even if it was a bit one-sided, this is the place where you've fallen in love. Whoever this person was, you're going to make damn sure they regret making you feel like this. You latched onto that particular thought gratefully, as you walked out with particular care to keep your facial expression neutral. 

“Yeah,” you spoke up as you saw that he was a little distance from the bathroom door, looking around with a frantic edge to his movements. He jerked as you called and nearly jogged up to you.

“OH THANK THE STARS- YOU SHOULD'VE WARNED ME YOU NEEDED A BATHROOM BREAK!” he frowned heavily at you, and you shrugged guiltily. 

“My bad, I didn't mean to make you worry,” you were quiet for a few moments as he scrutinizes you, trying to read your expression. Suddenly, you ask, “Hey Puppy... you've got my back, right?

He stills and looks at you with complete confusion and indignation, “WHAT? YOU KNOW I DO!”

Your laugh came out as a quick bark and you look to the ground evasively before meeting his eyes, “Don't think I'm doubting you at all.” You smiled tiredly, but with sincerity. “I'm just regrouping.”

Papyrus can't tell quite what you mean by that, but it was apparent you were close to talking to him openly for the first time that day. He took advantage and pushed, “LISTEN, YOU HAVEN'T BEEN YOURSELF AT ALL AND I REALLY DON'T THINK IT'S JUST FINALS. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S WRONG AND IF YOU DON'T I'LL... I'LL... MAKE YOU SLEEPOVER AND HAVE A SUPER HONEST HOT CHOCOLATE CONVERSATION!”

Mischievously, you couldn't help teasing, “You promise?”

“IF THAT'S A CHALLENGE THEN I PROMISE YOU I WILL GET THE TRUTH OUT OF YOU!” Papyrus was exasperated with you, but finally a little life had returned to your countenance despite the way you leaned heavily on him walking out. You were texting Alphys to let her know that you were going to be sleeping over at his house, relying on the way he shifted as he walked to keep track of where you were going. It was the first thing that felt right from you all day.

He only realized later that this had been the first time in weeks that you'd stood so close, while you were fast asleep on the couch. You'd told him about having nightmares and then promised to say more once finals were over.

“I'm still tutoring you,” you'd said as you looked at him sternly, but with little effect as you'd swayed almost drunkenly in place in your exhaustion. “I want you getting straight A's on these exams before anything else.”

“i was wondering when i'd see this again,” Sans commented as he came downstairs to pilfer some chips from their fridge and saw you drooling in your sleep, hugging a stray pillow. “did ya finally talk it out?”

He sighed, deciding he was still frustrated with you regardless, “LITERALLY NOTHING GOT RESOLVED.”

~

Dreaming again felt like falling from the place you'd curled up on the couch and straight into a field of lavender. You even felt you body hit the ground with a solid thump.

“Fuckin'- OW! Why do I do everything so damn gracelessly?” you grumbled, shaking off pollen and picking at crushed blooms on your clothes. You were muttering under your breath about how you were a horrible klutz even in your dreams when the field seemed to whisper in anticipation.

As you looked up in the direction of the whispers, the figure seemed to melt back into existence from the shadows of the forest line. You approached them only to do a double-take as you absorbed the radical difference in their countenance. The skeleton stood somewhat more solidly, and their face was finally constructed with the exception of a couple of misplaced pieces still flickering in and out of existence, or hovering in place. In short, they no longer seemed as if they were about to fall out of the dream.

You squealed, startling the figure into almost ducking back into goo and bounced over to get a closer look at your handiwork. You cried out and clapped, “It's helping, it really is!”

The pieces shifted strangely to accompany the wry expression as they felt their face, “I almost didn't notice... this was your doing then? Humans truly are remarkable creatures...”

“I just wish it didn't take so much damn HP to do anything,” you scrutinized the pieces that didn't quite fit in from your drawing and resolved to fix that as soon as possible. The skeleton monster seemed amused, and remained still even as you began poking at their hands. You seemed flummoxed at the holes that remained even as you looked for signs of bone fragments that would fit the spot.

“You're trying too hard to perform magic that doesn't naturally suit your talents, young one,” they gently retracted their hands from yours. Sheepishly, you ceased investigating and listened to what they said.

“It's natural for to feel exhausted for doing little things that won't come naturally. It is just a matter of finding something close to you for you to use,” the monster seemed to melt in place a little, but managed to right themselves again.

“So what are my talents? Besides dreaming about real people I've probably never met before, and drawing their faces back together,” you said, somewhat facetiously. “It'd be a big help if I could fight without doing all this damage to myself, really.”

“It won't be long before you pass from the lucid state of your dreams, but perhaps...” they murmured.

The world shifted, losing its color for a second-

-but then it refused.

Instead, the colors flared vividly and spun in response to the challenge, your soul already actively producing wisps of smoke-like magic. The normally tranquil scenery hummed with subtly shifting motion. The monster's soul dark violet fell to the lavender's influence and became clear against the inky darkness of their body. Without CHECKing you could see,

W. D. Gaster  
HP: ???  
ATK: ???  
DEF: ???

Shattered from reality many years prior, resides in the VOID.

“... I may be able to assist your schooling.”

Rather than remain on the opposing side of the field, the monster who you now knew as Gaster shifted over to fuss at your stance and give a lecture on perspective. Soon you were shifting the battlefield to it's standard monochrome and your dream's hyper vivid fight response. You still struggled as you focused on their soul, to flip it back to a light purple at a moment's notice.

You could almost feel your body's irritation with the whirring activity within your mind and soul as this continued. Not long into training did Gaster's words begin garbling and you soon fell into a deeper part of your sleep cycle. The next thing you knew, you were being shaken awake.

“WAKE UP SLEEPYHEAD!” Papyrus managed to bring you out of your deep sleep and you blinked. “I'VE ALREADY PREPARED BREAKFAST BUT WE GOT TO GET GOING FOR THE FOOD SCIENCE EXAM.”

You allowed yourself to be herded out the door, still half asleep and absentmindedly nibbling at the cold spaghetti he shoved into your hands. It occurred to you he waited until last minute to shake you awake, but despite that, you were still close to dropping back off into dreamland. Luckily, this sort of tiredness wasn't accompanied by the sense of unreality that you felt when the days blurred together without a distinct beginning and ending. 

Today, you could almost trust yourself to know what you were doing as you filled the multiple choice portion of your exam. Almost without needing to think, you easily answered the essay portions. You handed your exam to Dr. Levan with a slight smile and nod and headed outside to wait for Papyrus. 

Nearly nodding off, you jumped when Papyrus pounced on you, practically vibrating with excitement. “YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS KITTY!”

You were promptly picked up and hauled over his shoulder in a flurry of motion, into which you passively accepted with a yawn, “I hope you handed in your exam and didn't just walk away with it to show me or something.”

“THAT WAS ONE TIME!!!” he screeched indignantly and you giggled.

“All right, what is it?”

What he handed you as you hung from his shoulder was a school business card with a scrawled message on the back, “Feel free to ask for a recommendation letter anytime. -A.L.”

You could almost kiss that teacher just for being an amazing human being. You and your friends had more allies and therefore a stronger support base. “That's a pretty amazing way to end your finals week, congrats Puppy!”

“I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, IT IS ONLY NATURAL SHE WOULD RECOGNIZE MY ABILITIES! AND NOW-” you were dumped into his convertible with a dull thump. You rubbed your eyes to glance up with puzzlement as he leaned over you and stared seriously, fiercely even, into your eyes and growled out “YOU HAVE TO TELL ME EVERYTHING.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went from "Let's split this into 2 chapters" to "Let's keep it as is" so many times in the last week and a half. But what the hell, I want to keep this chapter as is because it really doesn't feel like it should be separate chapters despite the length. Let's all just relish the fact that they're finally going into summer chapters and that both Reader and Papyrus are swinging back into action.
> 
> Also for those of you wondering, I will be doing Underswap AU Extras Story Arc before the other AU's. It remains scheduled as the 31st chapter.


	30. How to Censor 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Papyrus have a serious talk, and then finally vacation time!

Your heart rate picked up as a second passed, and then more seconds passed without you being able to work anything past your throat. Staring up at Papyrus who seemed at his wit's end with this unintentional secret you and Alphys and Undyne had apparently kept from him and the real secret you were now keeping with Sans about Gaster. You had meant it last night when you said that you'd tell him everything you could, but now faced with the situation you found yourself speechless. A hurt look passed through his eyes,

“YOU REALLY CAN'T-?”

You grabbed his hand just as he started moving back, a part of you sighing in relief when he lets you, afraid that he might have taken your silence too seriously. “Just! Give me a second, I'm trying to figure out where to start...”

You picked at your collar, trying to organize your thoughts. Finally, with a deep breath, you began talking. And didn't stop.

“I didn't realize you didn't know about this before... but I actually don't know who does know other than Alphys, Undyne, and quite possibly Mettaton. I'd been staying over at Alphys's apartment recently because someone's been in my apartment that isn't me or my roommate. And. . . whoever it is knows that we know. Alphys had been monitoring my apartment with a camera that went missing awhile ago. So... that training that Undyne's been doing with me actually has more to do with self defense than just learning how souls work.”

Papyrus had been listening intently, but now reached over to gently untangle your hand that threatened to twist your shirt out of shape. “AND SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN SLEEPING...”

“No I haven't, I keep feeling like I have to stay at guard at all times. And every time I think about it, my pulse races... sometimes I want to just crawl into a cupboard and hide, and sometimes I just want someone to show up already so that I can lash out and fight. And with the trouble with Dr. Carter... yesterday I couldn't stop thinking about his final, and when I got out I just realized that he might be able to find out where I live, even with FERPA trying to protect students and just... what if even that's wrong? He might be a jerk that's done some horribly suspicious things, but I could even be wrong about him 'cuz I don't even know who it is. I don't even know what to do with myself right now, 'cuz I could justify being up at all hours studying during finals but I feel like I can't even practice magic like that! I'm so awful at it I'd probably just accidentally kill myse-”

“STOP.”

You were talking quickly now, far from just impersonally reciting facts, and with Papyrus now holding both of your hands you started to feel the loss of control much more keenly. Your breathing began to pick up as he told you,

“JUST DO WHAT I DO.”

You paused, your internal sense of panic interrupted by a vague puzzlement. “W-what you do?”

He hummed, “YOU DO KNOW WHAT I MEAN, DON'T YOU?”

“Um...” you tried your best to redirect your attention to what he was asking, but the more you thought about it, the more you were genuinely confused. Helplessly, you shrugged.

“REALLY?” he huffed. You looked down, feeling somewhat ashamed for being unable to riddle it out. He let go of your hands to cup your cheeks, hesitating for a moment, before firmly pushing your head up to look at him. “KITTY, I BELIEVE IN YOU. THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING THIS WHOLE TIME. SO, JUST DO WHAT I DO, AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.”

You blinked once. Then again as your vision started blurring. He believed in you... Papyrus believes in you. Your breath hitched and then shaking your head out of his grasp, you hugged him hard to bury your head into his chest and began to bawl.

“AHHH!!! YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO CRY?!” Papyrus squeaked as he wrapped his arms around you and rubbed your back in worried circles. 

“T-thank you.” your sniffled, your voice thick and wavering between sobs. He slid into your seat beside you to continue comforting you more easily. “Y-you're too c-cool, y'know?”

“HONESTLY, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE LET IT GET THIS BAD...” he grumbled. Then he stopped for a second suspiciously, “ARE YOU SNOTTING ON ME?”

“Maybe.”

After you cried your heart out until you were too tired to keep it up and ended up falling asleep in the skelebros' apartment again after Papyrus opted to look after you, you found that you couldn't be separated from him too long even if you tried. As it turns out, most of your friends had already known about the situation and was only keeping it from Papyrus so that he could focus on finals. You would've been just as ignorant, had the situation not escalated with the missing camera and forced you to move in with Alphys earlier.

~

Vacation was a much needed thing. You would've been amazed that everyone was able to organize together enough to go to the beach for a whole week, but after the last few weeks of school you ceased to find it in yourself to be surprised anymore. You had to go through a few different hastily packed bags from moving out of your apartment and into Alphys's, before finally, FINALLY, finding your swimsuit. You thought your biggest problem was just finding it, until you put it on.

Then you remembered you last bought this swimsuit in the 8th grade. 

You almost entertained the idea of wearing it anyway until Alphys passed the open bathroom door and turned a complete and uniform shade of red as she saw you. “OHMYGOD I-I am so s-sorry!”

“Didn't know you could change colors like that...” You muttered and she turned tail. With an exasperated huff, you yelled at her retreating form, “This isn't underwear!”

But when your top rode up high on your chest, threatening to expose you, you finally gave up and went online to stalk the perfect swimsuit. You put a lot of thought into it. Unfortunately, a LOT of thought. That led you up to this point where you were sharing the hotel room with Amber, who was quickly invited along on the trip, when you finally put it on for the first time. You frowned at your reflection in the mirror, and burned in the hell of your embarrassment. Well, the cat theme seemed like a good idea at the time... but now you had to walk out wearing it.

“Hey, get your butt out here! You'd been hiding that swimsuit in your luggage all freaking trip,” Amber yelled through the door. With a deep breath, you walked out and spun once to show off the full effect as if you weren't completely skeptical about your own life choices. The orange swimsuit had “Kitty Love” scrawled over the rounded cups, and a triangular shape that led into the straps like a cat's ears. The straps that wrapped across your body were black and wispy like whiskers. The bottom was a string bikini with the strings hanging down just past your thighs. 

“Yeah, maybe I should've picked something different,” you admitted. You reflexively grabbed a large T shirt to cover up the worst of it. “This is just dorky.”

“Nooo don't cover up!” Amber complained, hugging you to stop you from getting the shirt past your shoulders. “I gotta show you off to the others.”

“What?! No! No! NO!” You squawked and struggled as she pulled your shirt off of you and managed to shove you out of the hotel room and slam the door shut.

“BEE AR BEE!!! Just gotta make sure we've got sunscreen, room key, annnd absolutely no coverage whatsoever,” Amber sang.

“C'mon, throw me a bone,” you pleaded. “Or y'know a sarong?”

“NOOOPE! HAVE PAPYRUS THROW YOU A BONE!” She sang gleefully. 

“PHRASING AND VOLUME, WOMAN! WE'RE LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT DOOR!!!” You yelled. You sighed, and scuffed the ground a little, looking around. To keep costs down, the hotel was a fairly cheap place. Clean though, and very close to the beach. Nonetheless, getting kicked out of your room meant you were standing on the balcony of the second floor, so you leaned on the railing and looked down at the parking lot. You grumble, “Thanks Amber, I bear my heart and then you push me out...”

“huh, looks like someone's ready way ahead of time,” Sans observed the scuffle from their hotel room next door. He could hear the yelling easily through the thin walls, but Papyrus didn't react to the commotion, possibly due to the running water at the sink as he washed his face.

“I CAN'T BLAME THEM, I'M EXCITED TOO! WE'RE ACTUALLY AT THE BEACH FOR MY BIRTHDAY!” Papyrus practically squealed. “HURRY UP LAZYBONES!!! WE CAN'T KEEP THEM WAITING!”

Despite his words, he rushed out without Sans and nearly stopped in his tracks. You were leaning on the rail, barefoot and in your orange swimsuit. He'd seen your belly and back before as you were schooling him on muscle groups, but never quite so exposed, with the graceful lines of your collarbone leading into the gentle slope of your shoulders, down to the hips silhouetted by the cut of your bikini, and the vulnerable nakedness of your legs down to your feet. You glanced up and then away quickly with an embarrassed blush. He only noticed as you turned that the words on your chest read “Kitty Love” with the obvious pattern of a cat's head.

“WOWIE...” was the only thing he could say.

“Y-yeah, I know... I had a lapse in judgment,” you explained hastily, unable to meet his eyes. He had on a red pair of speedos which wasn't too different from his battle body to begin with. You did glance curiously at his ribcage, mentally tracing the bones to practice on paper later.

He blinked at the unexpectedly morose tone, “DID YOU FORGET YOUR SHOES AND KEY? I BET AMBER WILL GET THEM FOR YOU!” Oh, okay. You're not sure you're relieved or disappointed that he didn't say anything about the swi-

“YOU LOOK AMAZING!!” He blurted out, interrupting that line of thought. Your face burned hot and you desperately wished that Amber didn't strip your shirt from you, as you went to hide in your collar and remembered that you were in a swimsuit and therefore had none. Instead you clapped your hands over your face.

Muffled behind your hands, you say “T-thanks...”

“NYEH HEH HEH, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT BEING BAREFOOT!” Papyrus declared, jutting his ribcage out proudly. “I CAN CARRY YOU WHENEVER YOU NEED!” 

To prove it, he knelt on his knees and urged, “JUST SIT ON MY SHOULDERS!”

You peeked from your hands abashedly, curious despite your face still burning. He waited patiently as you slowly walked over, and seeing that he was sincere, you couldn't help a flummoxed giggle. “Geez, you're too cool...”

You carefully mounted his shoulders, the towel strung across them making the position more comfortable than it normally would be. Still a little bony though, no pun intended. He stood up with little exertion, holding your knees firmly to prevent you tilting off and with the addition of his height to the balcony, your view of the city became a little clearer. Fascinated, you sat up a little taller and forgot to feel embarrassed. 

Eventually, everyone trickled out of their rooms, with different states of dress. You were the only one left without any sort of coverage, courtesy of Amber who did in fact forget to grab your shoes for you. You decided not to complain, especially as Papyrus rubbed his thumbs across the top of your knees softly. Fortunately, Sans was in charge of driving the convertible so that the other cars and buildings passed at a reasonable pace. 

You arrived at the beach within a few minutes even at Sans's relaxed pace and only grudgingly climbed off once Papyrus stood on sand. You immediately ran to water where the sand was cool and to feel the water lapping at your feet. Amber tossed a bottle of sunscreen to Papyrus, which he looked at her questioningly.

“She still needs to apply sunscreen,” she said with a meaningful wink, and he fumbled with his grip on the bottle nearly dropping it. She and Frisk, who'd been balancing a grumpy Flowey, gave a high-five to each other as Papyrus turned to sternly relay the message.

“WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY YOU NEEDED SUNSCREEN?” he scolded. You shrugged helplessly. Honestly, you were too busy getting flustered and embarrassed.

“Kinda forgot?” you answered. “Uh, here just hand it over, I can take care of it...”

Despite Frisk and Amber's disappointment, Papyrus found he could still enjoy watching you apply the sunscreen. You were flexible enough to reach even the tough parts of your back, and with only the swimsuit on he could appreciate the way your muscles and bones flexed and moved together. As you rubbed it into your legs, you mused, “I wonder if I'll tan after this week...”

“I'M MOSTLY DEFINITELY WORKING ON A BEAUTIFUL BEACH TAN!” he said enthusiastically. You stared at him uncomprehendingly. Did magical skeletons tan? You were pretty sure normal bones bleached. Amber suddenly snorted, her flummoxed face reflecting yours. “YOU LAUGH DEAR FRIEND, BUT BY THE END OF THIS VACATION I WILL BE A RADIANT BRONZE BEAUTY!”

You couldn't resist laughing with Amber at that. You spotted Undyne and Alphys going off on their own, and looked back to the ocean to allow them to sneak off and find their alone time. It couldn't have been easy with you crashing over at their place after all, and you'd been fortunate enough not to walk in on any moments. 

Something waved in front of your face from the water, and you blinked before it registered that it was an actual tentacle. “What the..?” You took a step backwards, then another as another tentacle rose from the water before the face of the happiest octopus-looking monster emerged from the water. 

“Frisk! You came to the beach, huh!” they declared happily, and Frisk trotted up to the waterline to wave. Taking a cue from them, you waved too, perplexed at the sudden appearance. They noticed you as one of its tentacles waved out of it's line of vision, “Hey... there... I'm Onionsan!”

“Hi, I'm ____,” you introduced yourself with some bemusement. Onionsan didn't seem to notice, and continued to babble to Frisk, presumably filling them in on everything that's happened since they'd last seen each other. You walked down the line of the beach, partially in pursuit of shells and partially to put some distance between yourself and the disconcerting tentacles that waved in place. You weren't keen on the idea of shaking 'hands' so to speak.

You settled down in the water to examine a well worn shell further off from your crowd and closer to the pier. The shell was worn on one half so you could examine the inside like it was made for a marine biology class, and you were staring into it when you spotted a familiar white dog bounding up to you.

“Hey there buddy,” you cooed, offering your hand for it to sniff but it barreled straight past and leaped into your arms. “Aw okay okay, I missed you too, geez. Harass any cute skeletons lately?”

The annoying dog scrabbled heedlessly of your swimming top and nearly pushed it all the way down. Rolling your eyes, you pushed it away and stood up to try and keep your swimsuit in place. Much like the first time you'd tried to dismiss it, this was a horrible mistake.

With a playful growl, the annoying dog bowed and tugged on one of the strings of the bikini. You heard a tearing noise almost right off the bat.

“Wait, NO-” you grabbed the string to secure it in place but it tore completely loose. You stood up to try and fidget with what strings were left to hold the bikini up. The annoying dog spied the other strings wiggling with your panicked movements, and dropped the one it had to seize the one of the other strings so that the knot unraveled along the other side, “Oh shit, puppy no!”

With the absolute delight of any canine faced with the prospect of playing 'keep away', the annoying dog darted away with the remains of your bikini. In a panic, you dived into deeper water to avoid being seen. Desperately, you called, “Seriously, come back! I'm going to get arrested like this!”

Now if only dogs understood the concept of public nudity and its relation to being a crime. Instead, the annoying dog cocked its head and then raced off when you tried to inch closer. You buried your face in your hands as you groaned. “Nooo...”

White and orange blurred past Frisk and Onionsan, and they looked at each other questioningly before looking to the direction the dog came from. Curious, they went to go see what had happened. You were sitting in the water with your arms crossed over your lap as you'd looked past your to see them coming. Quickly, you explained in shaky clipped sentences what had happened.

Frisk frowned thoughtfully at your quandary but before they could sign anything, Onionsan spoke up enthusiastically “That's a real tough situation, huh! But that's okay, y'hear! I can keep you covered up while you're close to water, y'hear! Then Frisk can go find something y'hear!”

Before you knew it, you were being escorted by Onionsan who held their tentacles in front of your waist and behind you so to avoid flashing the passerby or your friends while Frisk ran further up to the beach where Papyrus, Flowey, and Asgore had settled down to build a sandcastle. Sans, Toriel, and Amber were also nearby, sunbathing and chatting. Slowly, you stood up in the water and followed so that Onionsan didn't slip in their censoring. Internally, you were conflicted with being mortified or trying to process the fact that you were using a monster's tentacles as a censor bar. 

Seriously, there had to be some sort of joke to be made here.

That thought was quickly drowned out in a fresh wave of mortification as Frisk ran up to Papyrus specifically and began signing rapidly. He and Asgore glanced your way curiously before both of them appeared to jump in place and freak out. Flowey appeared to be shaking his head and bashed his head against the rim of the flower pot to 'facepalm'. You crossed your arms low self-consciously and shot an uncomfortable smile to Onionsan who simply began babbling in a series of y'know!s and huh!s. 

“I HAVE BROUGHT MY TOWEL FOR YOUR UH, SITUATION,” Papyrus says as he handed you a towel. You exhaled a noisy breath you hadn't realized you were holding and wrapped it around your waist gratefully. Frisk gave you a thumbs up and you only barely managed to avoid giving them the stink-eye in response. It was almost like they were colluding with the annoying dog.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” you told him, as you tied multiple knots all the way down to your knees, “You are literally too cool for this world!”

Of course, the commotion couldn't go unnoticed by everyone else, and Amber soon walked up with concern, “What happened?”

“So a dog might've stolen my bikini...” you admitted. Both of them blink blankly before Amber literally falls over in the sand howling hysterically.

“Oh... my..! GOD!!! Its just like... the Coppershade ad!!!” she choked out. You just shake your head miserably at her. “This might actually be the best day ever!!!”

“I'm having a very rare day where I regret having you for a bestie,” you muttered, sulking in your discontent.

She makes a kissing face at you and winks, “I love you too!”

You look at Papyrus with a deadpan stare, “We should bury her and Sans in the sandcastle. Make it an Egyptian pyramid.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire chapter is just night and day I swear. But I honestly couldn't wait to be able to post it either, because there's just so much crazy I needed to share with everyone. As a reminder for everyone, next week is an Extras chapter, our first look at Underswap!


	31. Bonus Underswap: Even as Kuebiko Remains...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus faces off against the nightly violence that occurs in his dreams only for a deviation to occur.

It was called kuebiko, apparently. This exhaustion that plagues him in both life and dreams. Anyone would get it in his position, he was certain. After all, who wouldn't tire of a young child murdering everyone during the daytime-

-and then returning to kill him at night?

At this point, after countless resets for which he is relieved to be unable to remember, he was just holding on by a thread of inexplicable faith. That one possibility that this child would eventually get bored or maybe even see the error of their ways. Regardless, he hoped that it would be soon.

“nyeh!”

He narrowly dodged the swipe of the knife, the displaced air whistling past where his ears might be. This child with their eerie smile, pale yet flushed face, was certainly determined to see him break down. He couldn't afford a misstep even with his hit points as high as they were. He learned by Alphys's example that even if he wasn't taken by surprise, getting hit once could take you out at this stage in the mass genocide. And he'll be honest-

He's not anywhere near as determined as her.

Fwoh!

The knife hooked a little too close to his neck, no good. He had to keep moving, put some distance between them. Bones fanned out radially and then with a flash of citrine magic they stabbed outward granting him the space he desperately needed to keep the battle going. To buy more space and time, he summoned the Gaster Blasters, maws widening to unleash a hellish blast of energy. If there was one thing he could thank Gaster for, it was the countless hours of research they spent trying to figure a way to blast the barrier open. They never got the intended effect quite down, but it made for a pretty powerful defense. 

Regardless the world started to spin, and not for the first time he wished he bothered to get out and exercise more like Sans suggested. Whenever he thought about dropping the use of shortcuts for even a day though, he would catch himself wondering what was the point when he would always be back to square one?

“listen, it seems your life may be going on a dangerous path right now. maybe it seems like there's nothing better to do. maybe it seems pointless, right? but, i believe in you human, i know you can find a bette-” he tries telling them before the knife comes down again. His words caught. He could have sworn he dodged correctly, but the burning across his throat tells differently. His perspective angles to the side before falling alarmingly into his hands, staring up at the shattered vertebrae that fell into themselves as feathery grey dust.

~

He always wakes up at this point, he found, and starts the day again. The repetition of his life like this could be soothing if there wasn't something about it that seemed perhaps a little too precise, deja vu by nature. There's a part of him that dreaded the return of the fallen child, despite the anticipation that colored Sans's perspective positively from day to day. 

Fortunately, today was a regular day. He teased Sans with puns and occasionally pulled out a saxophone to accompany Sans's incidents with incidental music and, heh, just to call it a saxobone as Sans yelled at him. Sans would then grin harder, his perpetual grin pushing up at the corners of his eyes as he planned some revenge jape. He was like that, mischievous and cheerful to a default and occasionally Papyrus would catch himself wondering at how his older brother could be so amazing.

Papyrus allowed himself to 'doze off', anticipating the trick only for Sans to take a long time preparing it this day, falling asleep for real.

~

It was quiet in the Judgment Hall, even the soft shuffling of Papyrus in his sneakers echoing in the silence. He'd like nothing better just to fall asleep and wake back up in Snowdin, but there was nothing for it but to wait. Perhaps, he could persuade the child this time around.

~

You were in the hospital, getting a round of rabies shots and groaning anxiously as your mom tried to distract you with the book you brought.

“It's okay, ____ just read this while they're fixing you up, okay?” she soothed. It was a present from a classmate about a mistress of spices and it sounded like a forbidden romance kind of deal, but you just couldn't focus on anything more than the artwork on the cover.

“Ugh, can't focus when I know it's about to go under my- nnnn... skin...” you grimaced and whined. “Starting to really regret lots of things right now... taking virology being one of them.”

Your mom 'aw-ed' and brushed your hair out of your sweaty face, “Just don't look, okay honey? This has to be done.”

Despite how calm she tried to sound, she had been the one that was freaking out earlier that day when you'd climbed out of the car to carefully approach a dog that was on the side of the road. You suspected it might've been in bad shape, from the way it panted heavily, lying down and whimpering. You were in the middle of calling animal control and reporting the situation when almost casually, the dog had craned its neck to nip your outstretched hand. You were prepared to have to fight back to get away, fully expecting it to clench its jaw and shake violently but it seemed uninterested and laid its head back down again panting shallowly now.

Blood welled from bruised and broken skin.

So that left you with the sinking feeling and dread of telling your mom you just got bit by an animal going through the final stages of dumb rabies. It was probably one of the most depressing days of your life thus far, feeling the vaccine needle pierce your skin and knowing not only were you going to have to endure this twice more this month, but that the dog you found was going to be undoubtedly dead by the end of the day. It left you listless, tearful and reluctant to cope with the rest of the day so you opted to daydream on the way home instead.

When you got home, you went to your room straight away to go to nap it off as your mom called your dad and talk about the events of the day. Instead of getting a break from your depressive state, you found yourself dreaming vividly.

The forest trees couldn't filter out all of the sunlight from your view and you twitched as you suddenly grew aware of your surroundings in dream. Wondering if you were in some sort of odd Red Riding Hood story, you avoided the meadow that you saw in one direction and decided to go the other way. The forest seemed to climb up a slope, and soon enough you found yourself on your hands and knees, carefully picking your way with roots and rock for footholds. It was not long before you came across a cave.

There was a light and a repressive hollow sound ringing, but you ignored it, determined to continue on with the dream and leave it behind. With a popping sensation in your eardrums, you crossed the center of the room and felt the air around you shifting.

The smell gave way to a sweet, yet still air, and you wondered if the air from outside ever touched this place. You passed through a room with a throne and garden, an upright form covered by a sheet in the corner. You checked it curiously, but it was just another chair. It was strange how quiet this place was, and as you thought about it, you wondered why there was a garden in a cave anyways? Nonetheless, you passively accepted your surroundings for what they were, stepping up stairs into someone's home, and finally you began hearing something off in the distance.

Attracted to the first sign of life in this strangely elaborate underground structure, you made your way into a golden hallway, old runes swimming across the floor from the light filtering through stained glass windows only for the light to be interrupted by the thick structural pillars. You could hear scuffling and then someone flew out from behind a pillar at a supernatural speed, followed by a smaller figure. The small figure was clearly a child, but the eerie gleam of the knife in their hand forewarned you not to treat them as such.

The other figure in question was a literal skeleton, who could almost camouflage with the hallway in their dull worn orange hoodie. They looked like a wreck, somehow sweating despite the lack of apparent sweat glands and wearing a look of desperation. Bones materialized from thin air and swept towards the kid, and for the second time that day you found yourself rushing straight into danger but as to save the skeleton or the child, you weren't sure. Both looked like they were ready to kill the other.

“H-HEY!!! Knock it off!” You shouted, with the intent of pushing yourself between them but just as soon as the skeleton turned their attention to you the child dissolved into wisps of smoke. 

“Huh?”

You were shocked by the sudden appearance of a couple of draconian skulls and the rapid shifting glow of gold to green eyes, just as Papyrus was shocked at the appearance of an entirely different human. You both stood there, him looking back to where the child was and then to you, uncertain as to what would happen. You stepped back unconsciously, ready to retreat and his eyes followed the movement, suddenly aware that he was ready to send a blast of energy at any moment.

He called it off, with one dying flicker of magic in his eyes and pulled his hands out of his hoodie pocket to show that he's holding no weapons. You didn't relax at all, but you stopped leaning back on your heels and you mimicked the gesture.

“I didn't mean to startle you, but...”

“...sorry for the scare.”

You both paused again, with no good way to restart this particular conversation. Papyrus finally sighed, shoulders sagging and he raised his head to meet with your gaze. He held out a hand with a tired smile,

“nice to meet you human, i'm papyrus. papyrus the skeleton.”

Wary of a trap, you approached slowly, unable to feign a casual air after having such an intense weapon pointed at you. You wrapped your hand around his, opening your mouth to introduce yourself when you got squirted with whip cream.

“ACK!” You jumped away to swipe at the sugary stuff, and yelped with a perplexed bemusement, “What the heck?!”

“the ole whip cream trick, it works every time,” Papyrus winked, “apparently even in dreams.”

“Ha... guess so. You're aware that you're in a dream, huh?” you say, still trying to shake it off your hands and resorting to wiping it off on your clothes. “You're pretty weird for an animate skeleton.”

“like you have room to talk,” he noted. “how did you get behind me like that?”

“I came in from that way,” you told him. 

He felt skeptical, although he could just chalk it up to dream logic. Nonetheless, the minor mystery was a nice change of pace from fighting for his life every night, “eh, it's probably nothing, but go ahead and show me.”

You blinked and shrugged. This was pretty strange even for a dream, but you went along with it. “All right.”

You continued talking back and forth as you returned to where the mouth of the cave was, “I came in around here, I remember that obnoxious sound.”

“well, yeah. that's the barrier.” Papyrus said. You raised an eyebrow at that.

“Really? You should probably think of a better barrier bone boy, I just walked right through.”

Without being stopped, you stepped forward and moved past it with nothing more than irritable shake of your head as your eardrums popped. Papyrus hung back, looking nervously at the way you simply walked past the one thing that'd been keeping monsters underground for so long. You looked at him expectantly though.

“What's wrong?”

He began telling you about the war that lead up to this barrier keeping them Underground, and how monsterkind had been vying for ages to break this barrier and live their lives on the Surface. He glossed over the unpleasant business of needing human souls, seeing as you might get spooked after nearly being blasted, and avoided the topic of the genocidal child. He shrugged after, “maybe the barrier will let you through but it doesn't seem likely i'll be able to mosey on through any time.”

You blinked, disconcerted. There was something about the morose way he told the story that didn't sound like it was just a story for him. “Are you really just a dream?”

“i've been wanting to ask the same of you this whole time,” he responded, wearily. “the humans i've seen around here have only been kids but you... you're older. i don't think i could've just made you up. yet, it seems impossible that a human can just walk in with no problem.”

Seeing him hang back like that made you want to just drag him through, instead you held your hand out in invitation, “If it's just a dream, then take advantage. You don't know until you give it a try, right?”

There was another long pause. He seemed as if he didn't trust your logic, but finally gave a weary shrug.

“heh, why not?” he reached for your hand only for you to hook your arm across his elbow. He blinked at the unexpected gesture as you stuck your tongue out.

“Don't think I forgot your little trick! As I was saying from before, I'm ____. The human, since we now have to clarify what sort of sentient being we are.”

You could feel it was a tense moment for him even getting closer to the barrier, but it gave easily enough. You rubbed at your ears to soothe the popping in your ears, but Papyrus found himself waiting for something, anything to happen. The dream to fall apart, a void to open up somewhere, the fallen child to even respawn and slide their knife between his vertebrae.

It was anticlimactic, but you kept walking, allowing him to process the gravity of the motion as you chattered away. “So if you say monsters and not just skeletons, does that mean there's more kinds of monsters than just you..?”

“of course there are,” he snorted. “there's not just one type of human are there?”

“Well...”

Progress was slow once you both stepped out, as Papyrus stepped out to look around wonderingly. It was the first time you'd gotten a good look from this vantage point, and although there was no sun in the sky to truly simulate reality, he still remained in place to drink in the sight of the lake, the trees, and the patches of meadow that spread out past the forest.

“I don't think there's really any place in life that looks like this,” you warned him, “This might be just what my dream looks like.”

“no, no it's nice,” Papyrus startled and then glanced to you. “this just isn't what happens when I go to sleep. by now... i probably would've lost my head already, nyeheh...”

He sliced a digit across his neck, much to your horror. You were mildly perturbed by the fight before, but as you got more acquainted with the strange skeleton, you began seeing the fight in a new light. “To... the death? You dream of being killed that often?”

“every night,” he confirmed. 

“That's really awful,” you tell him, your heart going out to him. “How do you sleep?”

“i don't during the night, and i just take naps during the day,” He grinned suddenly, “i guess you could say that you're my 'knight' today, seeing as you chased off the other human. so, why don't i spend tonight getting to know you instead?”

“It doesn't seem like you have much of a choice,” you voiced dubiously. 

“trust me, you're a dream come true,” he winked and you felt your teeth click with the force you closed your mouth, face alight from the unexpected flirt. 

You groaned, “Good god, I'm dreaming about a skeleton with smoother moves than real life people...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seeing as I'm gonna be away from the computer tomorrow, here's another midnight posting! Hopefully, the Underswap chapter meets your standards, as I've yet to truly hit any confusing spots with keeping the characters personalities straight! Yeah, that's gonna be interesting. In any case! The plan for the next few weeks is another 4 chapters of the regular story, and then the second Bonus Underswap will be posted at about chapter 36 I do believe.


	32. Make a Move, Before They Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has ideas how to get you two together. So why does this sound very much like a bad thing?

You never got your bikini back. Undyne and Alphys rejoined later recounting seeing the little white dog dart past without looking back. Alphys theorized it might've had some sort of hoard that it was going to be buried in as everyone turned to leave. Papyrus turned to you, but then frowned deeply,

“O-OH... WHAT WE WERE DOING BEFORE...” he trailed off. Your eyes went wide as you remembered sitting on his shoulders earlier. Before you could stop it, the thought of the towel riding up and your bare crotch pressed against his vertebrae passed through your head and for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day your face lit up in a bright blush.

“Oh geez,” You whispered weakly. “That's... probably not a good idea.”

“T-THAT'S FINE!! THERE'S OTHER WAYS TO CARRY YOU TO SAFETY!” Papyrus stuttered. Without any warning, he picked you up in bridal style while you threw your arms around his neck in a panic. He smiled at you and hesitantly you smiled in return, before promptly hiding your face in his ribcage.

“God, what a weird day...”

That night when everyone had returned to their respective hotel rooms, you were scrubbing the worst of the sand from all of the most uncomfortable places, and after determining that you were finally clean and comfortable you walked out into the room to hear some show playing that was clearly from anime. It would've been hard not to notice actually, as Amber had the volume turned up to the extent that you could feel the vibrations through the floor and your bare feet.

“Hey you, how are we supposed to hear each other talk if you've got the TV at full blast anyways?” You complained.

Amber wagged a finger at you, “Ah ah! I know you, you're going to totally bitch at me for today's thing when this was BEST case scenario.”

You narrowed your eyes at her. You could roll with the first part because you were going to complain about being locked out of your room without any of your beach supplies. But best case scenario? You flopped next to her. “How the hell is this best case scenario?!” 

She began, “You got some me-time with Papyrus and buried me in the sand in the process by the wa-”

“Hey, I gave you first dibs on the shower afterwards, and acknowledged having sand trapped in your swimsuit is just the slightest bit worse than just having sand on bare skin,” you groaned, defending yourself.

“Right but ANYWAYS you had him carrying you like a princess,” she turned to you, attention fully diverted to you from the program. “And here's the thing- you're not about to tell Papyrus anything, are you? You're just going to remain quiet, watch and admire from afar, and internally scream every time you catch yourself doing something that you consider something overly forward.”

Absolutely unable to refute any of it, you attempted to respond, “Okay, should have known you'd pick that out after like a day of vacation together, but... best case scenario?”

“You got to bond. If I let you stay in your self-exile then nothing's ever going to happen, and seriously... tell me what happened? Why not make a move?” Amber gave you a soft concerned look as she says this, tugging you close to wrap her arm around your shoulder and pulled you over so that you'd be partially buried into the crook of her neck.

You took a few moments to collect your thoughts, and then explained everything that'd happened between you since you'd been too busy to relay recent events to her. She frowned, humming here and there as you relayed the story and eventually she told you, “If you're telling me everything, then I think that you're both overthinking it. I will smack Papyrus for ignoring you however, he's totally flailing like a crazy idiot trying to get your affection points up!”

“I'm not a VN character dammit...” you grumbled. “And don't smack him for something he doesn't even know he did wrong, geez!”

“I'm not hitting him for accidentally hurting your feelings-”

“HE DIDN'T HURT MY FEELINGS!” you interrupted with a loud protest.

“-but he's gotta be punished for it somehow, or else he's gonna end up doing it again!”

“Don't...” the logic seemed a bit lopsided, but you weren't sure how to argue it. You were still busy trying to think up a retort when a loud moan distracted you both from the conversation. The girl on the television was being molested with tentacles and 'protesting' with questionable ardor. You both stared at the TV trying to figure out when the fuck that started playing, before you remembered that it was at the highest volume setting and that with the hotel walls as thin as they were, Sans and Papyrus could probably hear EVERYTHING.

“Oh my god turn that off! WHY IS THAT ON CABLE TV?!” You yelped as you ducked out of Amber's hold to look for the remote.

“Yeah, that's really weird,” Amber said with a funny look on her face. “Hey, can a human girl even be stretched out like that?” You glanced up and grimaced.

“Oh good god, even the art's terrible! WHERE'S THE DAMN REMOTE?! I AM NOT PREPARED FOR ANATOMICALLY INCORRECT PORN TODAY!!!” You demanded frantically. Unfortunately, Amber was too busy laughing hysterically at your pain to help you search.

“I think -ahahahaha oh god- Papyrus is rubbing off on you!” she choked out.

“PHRASING WOMAN!!!” You griped, despairing of ever turning the TV off. You finally saw the grey plastic sticking out of the crumpled sheets of the bed on the other side of the room that Amber would be sleeping on.

“Oh wait, I think they're demons or something. It's okay, she's getting rescued from the gangbang,” she snickered. You groaned at her and finally clicked it off.

“Nothing. Okay. About this situation.” You growled at Amber, but the severe expression you wore wobbled. Her giggles was catching and eventually the corners of your mouth twitched and you gave in to hysterical laughter.

~

“the girls are pretty loud, huh?” Sans commented over the sounds of their own TV going and you and Amber practically dying laughing in the other room.

“THEY SOUND LIKE THEY'RE HAVING FUN!” Papyrus cheerfully stated. The sounds in the other room fell silent for a few seconds. Then,

“GOOD NIGHT BONE BROS!” Amber yelled through the wall. Papyrus jumped guiltily.

He calls through the wall, “O-OH, GOOD NIGHT FRIEND!”

You laughed softly at them, and he could hear you hiss a hushed, “Shut up..!” then, “NIGHT PUPPY!”

“NIGHT KIT-KAT!” 

“Kit-Kat?!” you squawked, letting him know he successfully caught you off guard. 

“RIGHT! LIKE THE CANDY!” He explained, satisfied by your response. Sans made a face and pretended to gag, earning a very puzzled look. He could hear some scuffling, and then a dull thump as Amber yelped in mild pain and then yet another round of hysterical laughter. Confused, Papyrus asked, “WHAT? NO SERIOUSLY, WHAT?!”

~

Toriel, Amber, Alphys, Undyne and you were in the mall for replacing your bathing suit and getting a chance to go shopping for Papyrus. You were satisfied with a normal bikini this time around, but you found yourself stumped when it came time to pick a birthday gift. If it was anyone else you were shopping for, you probably would've been okay with just getting them something that was relevant to their interests, but for some reason you couldn't settle. 

You gave the cookbook section an offended glare at the number of 'easy' recipe cookbooks, purely just recipes that you could easily pull from online. He needed something more informative if he was going to become a chef, some sort of groundwork that would allow him to make up his own recipes. On the other hand, you had nothing to go on for clothes or accessories with the obvious challenge of body type. 

You were whining under your breath as you looked through over-priced kitchen supplies, when Toriel showed up with a shopping bag. “Oh my, are you having trouble deciding on something dear?”

“Just... a little bit,” you admitted, running a hand through your hair and then puffing at the stray strands with exasperation. “All this stuff seems... trite. It's not good enough.”

“Perhaps you ought to make it yourself?” Toriel offered, but you grimaced.

“That still seems a little cheap. Plus, I kinda wanted to help him with cooking some more. That's why I thought maybe this, but the cookbooks all seem to be taking shortcuts and the kitchen tools are kinda boring honestly.”

“Do you take shortcuts while cooking?” Toriel gently prompted.

You made a disgusted face, “No way! How could I call myself a proper cook if I didn't do proper research or just said 'eh, it's good enough'?!”

“Dear, I think you ought to make your own cookbook for him,” Toriel smiled. “Besides, I have a feeling... did you want to bake Papyrus's birthday cake?”

“Well, yeah of course I... do...” You suddenly got distracted by inspiration. “Ohhh... I'm gonna need access to a kitchen and printer. Also, can we go to an office supplies store?”

Toriel giggled as you perked up and went into mental overdrive planning. You even pulled out a pen from your bag and began scrawling notes on the inside of your palm. She spotted a flier posted outside the mall and took it as you all left, reading it before folding it and neatly pocketing it in her purse.

~

“a state fair?” Sans asked curiously for him and Frisk who were both peering over Toriel's shoulders as you'd all returned to the beach. You were busy playing, read also- ducking, volleyball with Undyne. Flowey was left in the position refereeing sitting in Asgore's lap.

“It starts this Friday, right before Papyrus's birthday. I'm sure everyone will have their fair share of the beach and sunburns by then, so why not go?” Toriel suggested. Sans looked the flier over.

“can I borrow this for a second? I think I can convince him fair-ly easily.” He winked to Toriel's giggling.

“That seems a fair assumption as you know your brother best, Sans.” They chuckled at each other before he trotted over to where Papyrus was cheerleading the match with Amber.

“C'mon you can't win any points if you keep dodging!” she was laughing. Papyrus was nodding emphatically.

“PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER LIKE THIS BEFORE SERVING IT BACK!”

“Meep!!” you ducked, pale as a sheet despite the sun, and sweating profusely.

Sans showed the flier to Papyrus, “hey bro, want to go the state fair this friday? they're holding a cooking contest.” He looked over the contest details eagerly, as Sans suspected.

“OBVIOUSLY WE'RE GOING!!! WE MUST SHOW THE WORLD MY MASTERY AS A GRAND SPAGHETTORE. HEY KITTY!” Papyrus shouted for your attention as you dived to get away from the ball that was directed alarmingly hard towards your face.

“OH MY GOD YOU NERD, I'M TRYING TO GO EASY ON YOU!” Undyne shouted impatiently. “JUST HIT IT ALREADY!!!”

“Y-yeah?” you managed to ask, brushing sand off your hands and knees before retrieving the volleyball again and rolling it back to Undyne.

“WANT TO GO HOME ON THURSDAY AND COOK COMPETITIVELY?!”

“Who's judging?” You asked, still too distracted with Undyne's terrifying power serves, and thinking he meant just between you two.

“ERM, WHO'S JUDGING?” He stopped to ask Sans. He shrugged.

“fair judges, probably.”

“OKAY,” Papyrus relayed to you, “FAIR JUDGES!!!”

“Wait, what?” You stopped and turned only to be slammed hard against the side of your head and sent sprawling to the ground. “ACK!”

“SORRY! BUT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SERVE IT BACK!!” Undyne raced over. Alphys also ran over from cheering on Undyne's side.

“A-are you okay?” she squeaked.

“Totally fine!” you raised a thumbs up from your prone dazed position on the sand. “Or at least until the internal bleeding compresses my brain. Just drill a hole in my skull though, and it'll go away. Y'know. Probably.”

Your friends made a dubious sound in damn near unison that said they were clearly not assured. Except for Flowey, he was laughing his ass off at the way Sans blanched. Amber noted, “Maybe you should talk while someone else takes a turn on the court.”

Undyne threw an arm around Amber, “Great! Let's get going then!”

She stretched 'casually' in response, adding a long yawn with both eyes closing, but then peeked out of one half-lidded eye. “Bring it.” Despite being much shorter than you, she was terrifyingly ballsy with sports and competition.

“So,” you started, trying to distract Papyrus and Alphys from the tender bump in your hair. “What's this about the judges?”

Papyrus and Sans began explaining what was up only to be interrupted yet again by a new arrival. “DARLINGS, it's good to see you!” Mettaton boomed, his currently humanoid body wrapped in what could only be described as neon pink dental floss in lieu of an actual speedo. You nearly slapped a hand over your eyes before remembering that he was a robot and probably didn't have the equipment to actually be modest about. “I would've been here sooner, but alas I had to co-host a particularly important show with a certain... Ellie.”

He went through greeting everyone, with a somewhat condescending pat to your tender head as well as Papyrus and Flowey. Papyrus was too starstruck to notice, but Flowey gave a tight leer that threatened to become a snarl. With Papyrus distracted, Sans was left to explain to which he responded by simply giving you and Alphys the flier.

“A s-state fair? P-plus all sorts of different c-competitions- art, q-quilting, c-cooking, and all sorts of other displays...” Alphys mumbled thoughtfully. You nodded, finally understanding what they were getting at. You looked up to say as much to find that Mettaton and Papyrus had disappeared. You looked around, puzzled. There was only a few beach goers, a few of them looking over occasionally with sneers or a look of mild interest in the case of one.

“How'd I lose track of a giant flamboyent robot..?”

Meanwhile, said robot had taken Papyrus aside for a serious discussion. “Now be honest, have you asked her out yet, or not?”

Papyrus shuffled nervously, abashedly, “W-WELL YOU SEE...”

“I'm taking that as a no,” Mettaton clapped excitedly. “Wonderful darling!” Before Papyrus could voice his confusion, Mettaton barreled on. “Listen, I know exactly how you should ask your Kitty out!”

Papyrus was quiet for a moment. Mettaton prompted impatiently, “So? Any day now.”

“IT WOULD BE NICE TO BE UPFRONT FOR ONCE...” he said, thinking aloud. Mettaton nodded along eagerly.

“Wouldn't it though? And the perfect beginning to the perfect relationship too!”

“W-WOWIE, THE PERFECT BEGINNING TO THE PERFECT RELATIONSHIP? THIS MUST BE SOME SORT OF SECRET THAT EVEN MY DATING MANUAL DOESN'T KNOW!”

“Sure, darling.” Mettaton examined his nails evasively.

Papyrus clenched his fists resolutely, “LET'S DO IT!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't my favorite chapter in the world, but that's 'cuz there's a lot of setting things up. This kind of plot exposition is maddening. :P Fortunately, the next few chapters should be interesting!


	33. Bonfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's all fun and games until... wait? Are you telling me no one has a bad time in this chapter?  
> ...  
> Huh.

No one actually wanted to turn into their hotel rooms that night, not that you could blame them. Vacation was just barely starting, and Papyrus's birthday was coming up. There was an atmosphere of perpetual excitement so that no one felt like sleeping, not even Sans though he did take his fair share of cat naps during the daytime. 

Thus started the idea for a bonfire, first by Amber who honestly just wanted to set something on fire. That was just how she was, although you suspected there was something about how the light played in her camera that had her so entranced by flames. But then the idea gained momentum as Frisk excitedly signed so rapidly, Toriel had to translate for everyone that they wanted s'mores. Sans quickly pointed out that hot dogs was an option too. It was pretty interesting to see how quickly everyone fell behind the idea after that, when the bonfire had received lukewarm interest previously. 

That triggered another trip out for supplies- firewood, hot dogs, buns, skewers, graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate of all different varieties, chips, soda... basically every possible option to get your junk food fix. Honestly, you could list off at least 3 separate classes your major has forced you to take that had warned against eating exactly every one of these things at some point. 

“He-hey! Will someone make a white chocolate smores for me?” Onionsan yelled. Frisk gave them thumbs up as Flowey chomped a marshmallow off the end of their skewer. The two got into a scuffle and accidentally dropped it in the sand just as Asgore began preparing 3 new skewers in anticipation of this event.

“Hey, how many marshmallows do you want for yours?” Amber asked with a handful of marshmallows.

“Just load the skewer,” you responded, grinning mischievously to yourself. Dr. Levan would be shitting herself by this point, and judging from the funny look on Papyrus's face, you could tell he was thinking the same.

“Living on the edge for once, I like it!” Amber managed to squish 10 jumbo marshmallows on the skewer and handed it to you, licking the stickiness of her fingers off afterwards. 

“Oh, is that an edgy challenge?” you narrowed your eyes playfully. “I can always get a second concussion from Undyne over there-”

“HEY!!!” she protested indignantly, as Amber giggled.

“No thanks, I already know you're terrible at sports. BUT since you're feeling so brave today...” she grinned back as you suddenly remembered that Papyrus was in earshot of anything evil she could think of. Oh god. “... how about-”

You turned pale.

“We.” 

No. No. No.

“Tell.”

Ho, don't do it.

“Scary stories.”

“Oh, good.” You sighed and she smirked wickedly. It was better than what you thought, but then you realized that depending on what stories were told, you may or may not be keeping all of your limbs tucked tightly in your sheets tonight. You squinted suspiciously at Amber who whistled for everyone's attention, winking at you. She was trying to bring out your clingy scaredy-cat side, wasn't she? Two could play at this game.

~

“So, when Derek gets out of the car, he goes to the other side to help her out only to pass out in a dead faint. There was a faint metallic rattling when Elaina opens her door, and that was when she realized that attached to the handle was a rusty sharp hook! Oh my beauties, the terrible hooked man was that close to claiming his next victims!” 

Mettaton swooned dramatically. You snickered, admittedly he could be pretty entertaining, especially when Amber looked so unimpressed and exasperated. This was the third story Mettaton insisted on telling, but all of them were old urban legends and tales, nothing particularly scary. Of course, that could be for the best, given that Frisk was planted firmly in Toriel's lap, though they've remained fairly expressionless for the last few minutes. Flowey was similarly unimpressed, while Onionsan trembled and splashed in the water.

“Huh! That's so s-scary, y'hear!”

“If you think THAT'S scary, want to hear about the time Temmie was the k- EEGMPH! Umphuff FRRIGMPH!!!” Flowey started, with an eerily malevolent smile, but ended up shrieking indignantly through Frisk's palm.

Sans stared suspiciously at the two, as you looked between them trying to determine what exactly what was up with them, and failed. You had no clue. You shrugged, “So does anyone else have a good story?”

“W-well I did read this one legend online called Red Room which is r-rumoured to appear on a victim's computer,” Alphys offered, sweating a little under everyone's attention. “B-but this is a c-campfire thing, s-s-so it's not a good s-story at all...”

“That's okay! We saw a bunch of other legends like that too, remember?” Undyne nudged her. “Like the Slit-mouthed woman who asks you if she's pretty and will totally cut you up based on your response!”

Much to your amusement, the scary storytelling was quickly devolving into scary story conversing instead, leaving Amber to simmer in her disgruntlement. You take a bite of a smores sandwich, the chocolate and marshmallow now cooled and solidifying rapidly. You can hear her mutter, “It's like herding cats...”

“DO YOU HAVE ANY SCARY STORIES, KITTY?” Papyrus prompted, interrupting your struggle with the graham cookie crumbling and roasted marshmallow getting all over your hands.

“Ermph, gimme a sec-” you dumped half the crumbled ball back onto your paper plate and forced down your mouthful of chocolate and goo with what was left of your drink. “I have one story, but I dunno how scary it is really. I've never actually told it so...”

You weren't particularly keen to mention it, but you couldn't remember anything else well enough to tell the stories, and Mettaton already used up the few urban legends you knew by heart. You hid your hesitation by dumping a bunch of hand sanitizer on your hands to dissolve the layer of sticky marshmallow and wiping your hands on your towel. You finally started, after seeing Papyrus wait expectantly-

“There once was a child who wandered a forest in their dreams. Dark and dreary, this forest had very little life to be seen, except for the deathcap mushrooms that grew down near the dried and blackened knots of the forest floor. This child wandered throughout the forest, uncertain what they were looking for or why they were there.”

You closed your eyes so you could recall the details more clearly, unaware of the dying roar of conversation as your friends stopped to listen to you.

“In these dreams, they would sometimes see the shadows shift, independently of the trees. They soon learned to ignore the movements of these shadows, as the dreams progressed, but could never quite shake off the feeling of being watched. The first sign of life the child found was what appeared to be a mountain lion. But, the mountain lion was missing it's jaw, the tongue hanging loosely by a thin rope of sinew. The mountain lion pounced from the trees above, startling the child and nearly knocking them over though their claws seemed to have been torn from bloody paws. Despite the child's apparent terror, the large cat fell to the ground hard, slipping heavily onto it's side while it's tongue seemed to... twist. The child could hear a voice clearly in their mind,

'Honey, watch for the neutered predator.'

“The mountain lion seemed to twitch and writhe before becoming still. The child could sense an approaching presence, but when they whirled to face this creeping presence there was nothing to see or hear, not even the whisper of the wind. Afraid of a trap, the child backed away and watched them all night. In the morning they could almost forget the sunless gloom of the shadowed forest, only for them to return again later that night. This time, they came across a committee of vultures roosted across a rocky clearing in the forests, their chests torn and bloody. Most of the vultures had flown off upon the child's reluctant approach, but one stayed to fix a watery blue eye on them.

'My child, you cannot understand the fear and fury of the carrion feeders.'

“The resentful eye seemed to magnify and spin the child round and round, so that they fell through the ground beneath their feet. They fell, and fell, and fell. Believing they would die on impact, the child forced themselves to fall into the waking world. Shaking, but unharmed, the child was forced to return to their life with the knowledge that they would return to the toadstool forest. The child resisted sleep. They allowed themselves to be tucked in quietly, but once they were certain their parents were in bed, they crawled out of bed and hid in their closet.

“They managed to hide from sleep for two nights this way, only daring to nap in the full sun where the forest's gloom couldn't cloud their vision. On the third night however, they finally fell into the insidious grip of the deathly dream. This time, they were faced with what appeared to be a glassy window, strangely reflective in the surrounding darkness. There were no forest, nor sky. There was no beginning, nor end. The child thought maybe they woke up underneath the earth where they had last left off, buried alive. The window reflected their image, and the child moved to touch it when the world literally flipped by their perspective.

“The violence of their environment's motion threw them harshly against the glass with a loud crack, and suddenly it was not their own reflection but another child in the window. The other child tugged on their hand, frighteningly real and determined to pull them through the broken glass and beyond into the suffocating void beyond. The other one's voice could be heard, angry and insistent,

'I am the only one, the only one, the only one... we are the only one, become one one ONE AND ONLY!'

“And then the child was ripped through the window.”

You stopped, finally opening your eyes to look at your dumbstruck audience. There was a tense moment, and you had to resist smiling at everyone's long expectant stare. “The end.”

Papyrus demanded uneasily, “WHERE'D YOU HEAR A STORY LIKE THAT?!”

“Oh, just a spookypasta I found online. They're these scary stories published on this one website.” You explained preemptively, seeing that he was about to ask.

“that's pretty scary and all, but i think i've got a real thriller.” Sans winked, “knock kno-ahhh!!!”

Sans had clearly meant to crack a joke and the tense atmosphere, only to give a startled shriek instead as something black fell onto his skull and bounded off onto a bag of chips next to him. You got a good look into golden feline eyes, before the black cat stuck its head into the bag of chips.

“IS THAT THE ANNOYING CAT?” Papyrus asked suspiciously.

“Sans, you actually s-screamed!” Alphys said with disbelief, smiling widely despite herself. Undyne had already fallen into her lap, thumping the ground next to her laughing hard enough to being tears to her eyes. Flowey had begun cackling wildly as well.

“Are you okay Sans?” Toriel managed to restrain a giggle, but she had a hand over her amused smile.

A light blue blush rose to Sans's cheekbones as he tried to play it off, “i was just taken by surprise. feel-ine fine, honest.”

“Are those ketchup flavored chips?” Amber pointed to the bag the cat was rummaging through, bemused.

“It appears so.” Asgore mumbled. Despite the light mood, he was holding Flowey's flowerpot a little too tightly and looked scared to death. 

“Trashbag owner, trashbag tastes.” Flowey remarked snidely.

The cat backed out of the chip bag, licking its chops and looking all too pleased with itself. With no further explanation, the cat climbed into your lap and began cleaning itself there while you hold your hands up.

“I swear I don't know why the cat came to me,” you explained, sweating a little. “I have nothing to do with it.” 

“That's 'cuz you like animals, and animals like you,” Amber picked it up, only for the cat to struggle out of her grasp and parted from the group with an affronted flick of the tail. “Aw... it got away.”

~

“that can't possibly be the end to your story.”

Sans, shockingly, was the only one still awake. Papyrus had fallen asleep early due to all the storytelling. Most of the group had stuffed themselves into a junk food coma. Even Toriel had fallen asleep. You wondered if it was okay for everyone to fall asleep on the beach like this, but then remembered that Onionsan seemed to actually live here. Maybe there was some sort of city ordinance to give exception to aquatic monsters?

“You're right, but it's scarier when you think the story ends there. The ending's a bit anti-climactic,” you yawned even as you'd finished packing food up so that it could be taken back to the hotel rooms later. “The child woke up with a bloody nose after accidentally falling over and hitting their nose on their toy box. After that, the child started learning how to wake up voluntarily. Dream after dream, the other tried to pull them in, but the child would always escape their grasp so that the other gave up.”

“and your dreams now?” he asked perceptively.

You stared in the fire, answering elusively, “How do you mean?”

You heard him shuffle in the sand, “i was referring to those drawings of yours. was there something else i should hear about?”

You glanced to the side, to see his eyes closed and laying his head on Frisk's chest as if unconcerned by your answer. It really was weird how he could see through your lie like the glass window in your story. “The puzzle's mostly put together. I think I'm missing a few pieces though.”

You decided to risk saying a little more, hoping that everyone was asleep as you thought they were. “I'm learning a lot from them.”

“zzz.” Sans 'snored'. You could only roll your eyes and continue watching the fire. Despite how old those nightmares were, you weren't sure you were all that committed to going to sleep and risk a repeat episode of them until someone pulled you back, forcing you flat on your back.

Papyrus's sleepy expression was highlighted by the low light of the burning out bonfire as he leaned over you, the moon in the sky just beyond that. He huffed, “GO TO SLEEP, KITTY.” 

He threw over part of the blanket that Toriel left on him so that you were partially covered and closed his eyes with his skull propped on your shoulder and his arms wrapped awkwardly across your upper torso so that you couldn't move. It was your turn to huff, “How is that even comfortable?”

“SLEEP.”

You rolled your eyes at him, “All right, all right. You're the coolest and good night.”

It was a few moments of silence. You thought he'd gone to sleep for real this time, when he murmured suspiciously, “YOU'VE BEEN SAYING THAT A LOT LATELY...” You stiffened up in surprise.

“That's 'cuz you are cool,” you faked a yawn. “ 'Specially for sharing your blanket.”

“I-IT'S NOT LIKE I HAVE ANY ULTERIOR MOTIVES FOR KEEPING YOU CLOSE OR ANYTHING!” Papyrus's arms tightened around your mid-section for a brief moment, reflexively. “I-IT'S JUST BECAUSE YOU LOOKED LIKE YOU WEREN'T GOING TO SLEEP! AND YOU ONLY DO THAT WHEN YOU'RE STUDYING OR SCARED SO AS YOUR FRIEND, I HAVE TO MAKE SURE YOU FEEL SAFE!”

“What? I..!” You mentally groaned, how were you supposed to keep secrets around either of these skeletons?! Sputtering for another moment, you finally give up. “I... thanks. I guess that story still bothers me a little sometimes. It's been a long time since I've thought about it.”

Papyrus's only response was to drag you further under the blanket and wrap it around you protectively.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not gonna lie. Despite all the fluff I'm a HUGE sucker for a good horror story. Especially old legends, creative monsters, close calls (aka 'survived in spite/because of sheer obliviousness'), internal demons and moral ambiguity. White chocolate with marshmallows sounds pretty horrific to me... but I like my chocolate super dark! 72%+ for me! Actually, what're everyone's favorite chocolates? And horror stories? No seriously, tell me the scariest ones you know! Let's build a bonfire of our own here~! X3  
> Anyways, for those of you who're interested, I drew out and sewed up a Papyrus body pillow! Just barely finished it before my summer ended, so I can cling to Papyrus for dear life and cry to myself why biochemistry is so hard. *thumbs up* :D  
> https://agraulisvanillae.tumblr.com/
> 
> Incidentally, where'd that cat even come from..?


	34. Dreams Weren't Meant to Be This Realistic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaster takes training a little too far, and you prepare for the fair.

You felt yourself come to under the dappled sunlight that scattered past the trees. With a sudden jolt, you sat up with the forest leaves that you were buried beneath falling past you. You looked around on hyper alert for deathcap mushrooms before you saw the lavender meadow just past the trees. You sighed, falling back into the leaves. Playing with a gold-orange leaf that fell across your face, you wondered if the residual heat you felt from sleeping on the forest floor was from sleeping next to Papyrus in real life.

In the safety of your dream, with the sleepy warmth radiating from where you've awoken, you began to think of the soft glow of his soul. It seemed like a long time ago since that night, but in reality it had been maybe a month? Since then, all of your contact with souls had been fairly impersonal, instigating battles with Gaster or enduring similar battles with Undyne. Without really thinking about it, you changed the way you held the gold-orange leaf in your hand, cupping it and pressing it to your mouth. It wouldn't hurt just to pretend, right?

The leaf felt velvety against your lips, but having touched Papyrus's soul and even held it close, you knew that it felt more like silk. You frowned a little and tried to brush away the fuzzy texture. After a few times, the leaf smoothed out, and you stilled as you realized that it felt very similar to how you remembered it. Pressing another kiss to the leaf, you wondered if the environment of your dream was just as subject to your whims. You closed your eyes and allowed your mind to wander. What if you could tell him how you felt one day? “I...”

“Ah, there you are.” Gaster hummed. You startled in the middle of mouthing 'love' and practically flung the leaf away. “What are you doing burying yourself in the leaves like this?”

“Snoozing.” You said quickly. “Try always doing stuff not only while you're awake but in your dreams too! Tiring.”

Gaster hummed thoughtfully, “That's fine. But we have limited time before you wake. We must work now if you are to make any progress tonight.”

Brushing the blanket of leaves off you, you sacrificed your warm spot on the forest floor to allow your dream become a battlefield. The monochrome feel didn't have a chance to take hold as you firmly took hold of the fabric of the dream and washed it over with a quick gleam of light purple. You'd gotten used to rooting Gaster's soul to the dream, but with all of the training that's taken place sporadically in the last week or so, you weren't making much progress at all. You could tell, by the occasional flash of frustration that passed Gaster's face.

“You need to learn to utilize your dreams to the fullest,” he scolded. “You can't simply rely on the shock of being pulled into a dream to grant you an advantage for the entirety of a battle. You must be able to use your magic offensively as well as defensively.”

“Erm... I can make a shield.” You offered, recalling Undyne's magic and imitating what you'd done before. The shield which had a subtle shimmer in the sunlight of reality, now took on visible facets with a crystalline structure.

“It's a start,” Gaster responded. “But you should have progressed further by now.”

Rubbing your forehead, you grumble “Gaster c'mon. It's been about a week. Besides...”

You eyed his features, seeing something new from before. “You're missing less of yourself than last time I saw you. Do you need that to get... erm... secured back to your face or something?”

Gaster waved it off impatiently but you were positive that some of fragments of his face was coming back. They still looked rough and loose in place, especially as Gaster's expression furrowed. “No no, do not get distracted. Try utilizing the dream. You have an entire environment to mold to your will. Use it. Fight me with it.”

You were forced to think quickly on your feet, when parrying the bones that came spinning towards you, the ground erupted with more bone attacks like a virtual graveyard. By which you responded by dropping to your hands and knees to seed the crystalline shield into the ground and reinforcing the structure.

That was what you had intended anyways, but the shield remained intact and you received a solid hit to the solar plexus that left you unable to breathe. Gaster didn't wait for you to recover however, but pressed the attack. You thought you could trust Gaster to be able to stop when you needed him to, but you were starting to get a little scared. Gaster's attacks were coming in at rapid fire, trying to provoke a reaction from you, but you needed time to recover! You couldn't breathe still, getting hit from all directions and the lack of oxygen combined with the buzzing pain from each attack was making you woozy and disoriented. Your HP slowly started trickling down, against all expectations, and soon the world started washing in white.

~

Papyrus woke up in the early hours of the morning, feeling... ah, good? It wasn't like waking up at all, where he felt refreshed and energetic. It was sharper, like a burning lacing through his bones. Then he realized that you were clutched tightly to him, with your head resting against his sternum through his customized “Beach Bones” shirt. You'd looked peaceful in your sleep, with your arms tucked between the two of you, with his soul grasped lightly in your hands.

…

Oh no! When did he summon his soul?! Or maybe you did without thinking about it? Wait, but no one summons their soul in their sleep, let alone other people's souls! Why was it out here?! You mouthed at it lightly, and then he jerked rigidly in place with a gasp that sounded loud in the still morning air, barely resisting the impulse to clutch you harder against him. His face felt like it was on fire from the heavy blush.

With a deep intake of breath, he slowly and carefully unhugs you, and attempts to gingerly extract his soul from your hands. It wasn't easy to even work your hands open, but the idea of you waking up with it in hand was unnerving. He'd almost successfully pulled it out of your hands when you mumbled “I... lo-”

Then you twitched startlingly and his soul vanished from sight. However, he could still feel his soul singing in response. The difference now was that he couldn't tell if it was from your kiss or what those words could mean. Nonetheless, now is not the time to linger! Your legs were still tightly wound up with his, and he was still much too sensitive for that kind of affectionate contact. Plus, you were still twitching in your sleep. A lot. Actually, you looked like you were about to cry. He was about to wake you up but then a zap of magic sparked and passed through your body and then he felt a change come over everything.

With a loud 'ping!' ringing in his ears from the abrupt seizure of his soul, his surroundings completely shifted. Lavender shifted around him, as he sat up. He had no time to properly observe the lake or the mountains, but a loud cracking drew his attention. You were crouched under a purple faceted force shield, even as a figure stood off not too far. Both of your souls shone brightly, advertising your physical health statuses. The figure slowly stopped their attack, and advanced forward. There was something familiar about them he couldn't place, but he couldn't see their face either. You, on the other hand, had curled up tightly in a ball with your soul reading at a low 7 HP.

“STOP!” he yelled. Both of you looked up, taken by surprise. The figure's fractured face could clearly be seen now, eyesockets wide with surprise. Papyrus furrowed his eyebrows,“YOU'RE-”

“Brother?” 

And then everything melted away.

~

You'd been more than nervous to wake up, panicked really. Somehow you'd pulled Papyrus into your dream! You knew that you'd been practicing turning other souls purple with Gaster, but you hadn't realized you could do it in your sleep. You would've been happier for it, but you accidentally broke your promise to Sans. You didn't know how Sans was going to react when he found out, either.

And Gaster said brother as well. You'd had your suspicions for some time, but you didn't know they were brothers. After all, it's difficult to see the family resemblance with Gaster's skull so messed up. 

“WHAT A WEIRD DREAM...”

Once your eyes opened though, Papyrus was just shaking his head and Toriel was examining your handiwork from the previous night. “Oh, it looks like you lovebirds up. Will you help me wake up the other sleepyheads so we can go get breakfast?”

“Uh, sure...” then you realized what she said. You protested a tad too energetically, “Hey just 'cuz we're sleeping underneath the same blanket doesn't mean we're lovebirds!” 

“Of course not dear. Your sleeping together-like that means-that you're lovebirds.” Toriel winked as she pointed out your sleeping positions, and giggling at the way you and Papyrus struggled to work your way up from the sand, the blanket, and the others legs. It was going to be a long day, but if Papyrus thinks that it was an ordinary dream, you weren't going to disabuse him of the notion.

~

There wasn't an Italian cooking segment to the contest, so spaghetti was out, but there was a baking portion. You could vaguely remember that other fairs ran by similar rules, so it really wasn't all that unexpected for you. Papyrus mourned their limited scope, but rolled with the punches all the same. He was making the second batch of sourdough bread from the starter that you had made together, the first time without your instruction though.

As for you, you decided to make cinnamon buns, utilizing the same ingredients as Papyrus. It kept the strain off Sans who'd been helping you both over the course of the day with transporting you both from the hotel to the grocery store, and the apartment. He still had one final 'short cut' to go that day, so he was napping off the strain up in his room.

It was relatively quiet between the two of you, with you preparing the cinnamon and butter filling and him preparing to set the sourdough bread aside to rise. “You remembered to grease the bowl before that right? It's a pain to get it out otherwise.”

“OBVIOUSLY.” Papyrus responded. You nodded, still focused on the task on hand. “KITTY, CAN I SEE SOMETHING?”

“What is it?” You asked, washing off traces of butter and flour the stuck to your hands before wiping them off on a towel and turning to him. Papyrus was shuffling in place, and he wouldn't look at you long before his gaze darted away.

“HAVE YOU BEEN... TRAINING BY YOURSELF?” 

You blinked at the unexpected request. You honestly thought he was going to ask about the dream, or maybe even about why you'd been so low energy all day. You weren't sure where this was coming from at all. “A little bit... why? Has Alphys mentioned that I've been making healing items like monster candy?”

“W-WELL...” His cheekbones briefly glowed orange before he crossed his arms and held a hand to his chin. “YOU... ER... I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SAY THIS, BUT I THINK YOU PULLED MY SOUL OUT IN YOUR SLEEP? I THOUGHT IT WAS A DREAM, BUT THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT THE LESS DREAMLIKE IT SEEMED, EVEN THOUGH I APPARENTLY FELL ASLEEP RIGHT AFTER.”

You felt like grabbing the collar of your shirt and ducking into it. He doesn't think it's a dream after all? But wait... woke up? With a sinking feeling, you asked “What do you mean? Your soul was out while you were awake? Wasn't I still asleep? What was I... uh, doing?”

“OH WELL LOOK AT THE TIME! METTATON'S NEW PROGRAM OUGHT TO BE AIRING ANY TIME NOW, WE REALLY SHOULD BE FINISHING UP HERE AND WATCHING TV!!!” Papyrus panicked almost immediately and ran out, and you just stared after him, slapping your hands over your reddening cheeks. Oh dear god, did you really..?

You just hoped you didn't dream of having sex any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm incredibly sorry that I've been two days late here, first week of school wiped me out so that I couldn't really get to writing until Friday, and then I got caught on a couple of different scenarios that I could've led this through. So there was a little of mental paralysis that slowed me down. Unfortunately, this IS going to be an intense semester for me, so I'll likely have to move updates to Fridays. I will try not to be late again, but I don't think I can promise it, especially during the later parts of each month when I have exams or papers due. This is probably not one of my strongest chapters either.


	35. Graffiti Fair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fair's about to start, but everyone still has some last minute preparation.

“Awww I can't believe my best friend was off being all cute and cooking with her boooyfriend without me!” Amber teased with an annoying smirk, while you both walked. “What did you cook?”

“Sourdough bread and cinnamon buns. They don't exactly take pasta dishes, probably because it'd get pretty gross after a day of sitting there.” You said, giving her your most practiced 'Amber I swear to god' look.

Undeterred, she lit up as she pulled you in by the elbow, and at a stage whisper she said, “Does that mean you guys had a bunch of 'buns in the oven'?”

You jerked your elbow out of her grasp with an outraged “Wait?! What?! No! Absolutely no!”

“Oh Kiiitty I didn't know you two were so promiscuous~!” Amber sang and you slapped both hands over your ears.

The fair was starting later on the day, but since you both woke up early to try and get the cookbook done, you were walking over to a local cafe to get coffee and something to eat that didn't come from the hotel's breakfast lobby. 

“NO! Stop that! Stop that!” Amber started tugging at one of your arms and giggling so hard that the two of you were stumbling down the sidewalk like a couple of drunken lunatics. “C'mon you know you totally want a bunch of cutie pie bakery children! You can name one after their daddy, except it's Pa-pie-rus and-”

You chanted as fast as you could, “I don't want it I don't want it Idon'twantitIdon'twantit!” But you were laughing too, unable to totally block out what was saying. You both managed to stumble over to the cafe in one piece without anyone getting injured.

The cafe that had caught your attention right away when you first arrived, had the swooping shapes of birds and the cafe's logo framed by the musical notes being 'sung' by one of the birds on the building's storefront. In other words, you were a sucker for the cafe's whimsical art and were halfway curious about how it was done. Amber pulled her arm out from yours as you stared, and you did your best to ignore her as she raised her camera up and swiftly caught a candid of you with the wall. You caught sight of the artist's signature down by the corner of the building when she asked, “You done yet?”

“Mm, yeah, I found what I wanted. Take a quickie picture of this will you?” She assented and snapped a shot of the logo. You both walked inside, already a tad worn out from messing around first thing in the morning and glad to have coffee coming soon.

“Can I have a caramel macchiato with a shot of espresso, and a couple of... oh man, I don't know...” Amber mumbled staring at all the food in the display case. She asked, “Hey, wanna order a bunch of different things and then split them?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” You assented, and added your coffee to the order. You were looking around at all the bird cages, all of them filled with very awake and cheerfully singing birds. Yet another wall was painted, an artificial twilight drawn out pass the doors of a Japanese styled heated table and steaming tea set. “Huh, I never knew there were shops like this.”

“Okay okay, I think I got this- let's get a toffee bits muffin, the extra buttery blueberry muffin, a spinach quiche, and a bacon bits croissant roll. Oh and pleeeaaase can we get the strawberry white chocolate lava cake? That sounds so amazing!” Amber begged you. The person taking your order, looked more and more amused at the way you both bumped and jostled each other even when just standing in place. They wore a long sleeved button down shirt even with the heat resonating from the kitchen's large oven in the early morning.

“I really think you're just hungry.” You deadpanned. 

“I would try the tea here.” Asgore's deep voice resounded from a corner of the cafe. The gentle giant had been sitting in a corner with a cup of tea and a slice of cake, listening to you banter as he watched the tiny little bird flutter in the cage next to his table. 

“GOAT DAD!” Amber squealed. “You beat us here?”

“I've been visiting here since the first day at the beach. Frisk found their website for me.” Asgore explained. “Their tea is very good.”

“Then let's have some tea as well,” you added, deferring to his judgment. You knew enough about the Dreemurr family, to trust his verdict. “We'll need to stay hydrated anyways.”

You couldn't actually sit at Asgore's table given that his size engulfed the table itself, but you and Amber claimed the bar seats right next to it so that you could turn and talk.

“So you said that Frisk found the website? Does he know about these paintings?” You asked curiously.

The person serving your drinks and breakfast interrupted, with a shy hesitating manner, “It's from a local artist. I know him well, you might be able to catch him at the graffiti wall on the west side of the town.”

Amber and Asgore continued a separate conversation as you watched the server draw instructions on a napkin and explain.

“Hey, when are you going to start volunteering at the animal shelter again?” 

You glanced at Amber, “Huh?” When you looked back, the server was already walking away, retrieving something from the oven in the connected kitchen. “Oh, well, probably once we get back from the beach. Why?”

“I need to get some volunteer hours on my resume, and I'd feel better working with you since you've done it for a few years now. I mean, you did have a close call with a dog once. It's a good thing that you recognized that it had rabies, y'know?”

“Amber, it's not like any of the dogs at the shelter are going to have rabies. They've all been vaccinated and watched for diseases like parvo.” You scolded mildly, finally breaking up a lava cake so that the molten sauce coated it and eating a piece. “Whoa, this is really good, even for a cafe... hey, can I get a recipe for this? It's actually for a friend...”

Amber rolled her eyes with a look to Asgore. “One track mind, this one.”

“Just take a picture of this before it get's unrecognizable.” You ordered, returning her eye roll and sticking out your tongue.

~

Saying a brief goodbye to Asgore, you and Amber left with extra cups of coffee to collect all of the stuff that you've been constantly working on in the last couple of days and took your mission to a library to scan and print pages. Fortunately, you had a lot of time overnight to keep working until you looked up every detail for every dish and came up with conversion charts, a full glossary, illustrated steps of the more obscure cooking techniques, and finally the recipes themselves. You knew the science, and added asides that could be read without confusing the basic recipe instructions on the right pages. Amber's camera came in handy a couple of times as you'd included snap shots of yesterday's baking project and the lava cake that you'd eaten in the cafe.

Once the pages were printed out, hole punched, and laminated for durability, it was just a matter of organizing it. It was noon with Amber's help when you finished the last page. Looking at the completed binder, you beamed with pride. “I can't believe we got this done in time!!! Amber it's so beautiful! And we even have this recipe for his birthday cake too.”

“I know, and I'm so proud of you for coming up with a literal freakin' book for your husbando but can we PLEASE go out now? I'm all caffeinated with nothing to do now.” Amber whined.

“All right, all right, we're going. Let's see if anyone else might want to see the graffiti wall,” you texted the group chat and waited for replies. In a few minutes, you'd gotten a couple of responses, “No Toriel and Frisk, or the skelebros but Alphys and Undyne'll be up in a sec with Mettaton.”

Sure enough, the knocking on the hotel door was strong enough to text the hinges. In an effort to save the door from further abuse, Amber scrambled up to let them in. “ 'Sup!”

“Hey punk!” Undyne and Amber exchanged a harsh high five with each other. Mettaton wheeled in, this time in his rectangular form. You weren't quite sure still what made him decide to switch from one body to the other day to day. “Ready to kill time while everyone gets ready for the fair?”

It didn't take long to find the graffiti wall at all, with Mettaton serving as a surprisingly fast form of transportation, jetting over traffic and simply carrying everyone. The second you landed, Amber released her death grip on Mettaton's frame and stumbled to the ground gratefully.

“Never again... never flying without a seat belt of some sort.” You looked on sympathetically as she shook off her fearful experience. You looked on at the graffiti wall, the vibrant colors and pictures all painted on one drawing on top of the other. The layers of paint was thick enough that you had no doubt that paint would coat your fingers if you'd touched it, and the smell of spray paint thick in the air. Mettaton wheeled away as his phone suddenly rang, mumbling something to the installed receiver.

You continued looking from drawing to drawing, resisting the urge to touch the paint. As the server had pointed out, there were several drawings with the insignia placed in them, some appearing to have the insignia worked into the center of the drawing itself. Other places, the insignia had been sprayed over, so that only parts of them were visible under the latest drawings. You walked over to the very end of the wall when someone spoke up,

“Come to look at the graffiti wall, huh?” 

“Yeah, I went to the cafe with some graffiti art on it's walls, so I wanted to come check it out myself.” You turned, only to jump half a mile when you saw the person who was talking to you was absolutely covered head to toe with a gas mask, gloves, long sleeved shirt and apron. There wasn't an inch of skin showing. “Uh- oh! Sorry, I wasn't expecting all of the... stuff.”

“Yeah, I look like a total weirdo I know. The first time I did this, I accidentally got a ton of paint in my fur, so now everyone calls me Paint-Tail.” The figure paused, for what reason, you couldn't discern. It was strangely alien to talk to someone who looked kinda like they were in a biohazard suit. “There are worse things I guess.”

Your friends were walking over as you smiled, “Like what?”

“Well, when I was only a naive 19-”

“BURGERPANTS! IS THAT YOU?!” Mettaton boomed angrily, and you'd never seen anyone fall into a terrified crouch so quickly.

“Uhgottagobye!”

They took off with shocking speed as Mettaton wheeled after them and you stared after the duo. The figure managed to go so far in the distance before being successfully tackled by the flying Mettaton. It looked like it hurt.

“What was that about?” Amber asked, with a confused smile at the scene. You both watched them as the figure struggled to get away and Mettaton dragged them off like a lion with a gazelle.

“I have no idea.”

“O-oh, hey, i-it looks like everyone's ready to go the f-fair now, so we'll have to get going soon.” Alphys told you two, as she held her cell phone. She listened to it for a few seconds. “W-what? You'll come get us? O-okay, b-but we've got Metta- wait, where'd he go? UMMMM yeah, m-maybe that'd be a good idea actually... yeah, we left Undyne's car at the hotel.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, late and a short chapter. But I feel better about this one than the last. Regardless, things might not settle down for a couple of weeks. It's frustrating, because I want to get writing, but some things just have to be taken care of first. Next chapter will be Underswap part 2,that can be expected about Sept. 16-17th (that way, I'm not promising an update that's on time.)  
> "Bun in the oven" joke totally attributed to MindInMyth from chapter 17. Just so y'all know! XD   
> Also, the Bonfire chapter was a lot of fun getting to know you guys, so this chapter I want to know-  
> Coffee or tea? And what's your favorite kinds?


	36. Bonus Underswap... Exulansis is Breaking.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's the value of telling someone when they won't remember anything?

 

You arranged your most comfortable pair of earbuds and set your music player on shuffle. Trying hard not to feel the excitement that's followed you since the idea struck earlier that day, you threw your comforter over you and hugged a pillow to you before leaning over and flipping the switch. Fortunately, it didn't take you forever to fall asleep, though maybe that could be attributed to the piano playing through the earbuds.

Conveniently, you woke up at the top of the mountain, so you didn't need to spend a solid quarter of your dream just traveling. You stopped to listen, and sure enough you could hear music playing although it was muted like the speakers were playing from a mile away and not a couple of centimeters from your eardrums. You broke into a wide grin nonetheless, and darted inside the cave to go retrieve Papyrus.

Your eardrums popped as you passed through the barrier room, and you were halfway through the throne room when you realized you couldn't hear the music anymore. “What? Dammit..!” You grumbled. Oh well, Papyrus doesn't seem to want to be in the Underground if he could help it anyways. You kept insisting that your dream wasn't representative of any real place above ground, but that didn't seem to dissuade him at all. Instead, he waited expectantly for you like he does every night.

“Hey hey! I wanted to show you something, but ya gotta step out.” You tugged on his hoodie, and with a slight smile, Papyrus allowed himself to be led out.

“how are you feline?” he asked, with perceptible amusement in his voice. You paused in puzzlement, temporarily caught off guard from your thoughts of introducing him to your new trick.

“Feline?”

He gestured to the general vicinity at your feet. You looked down to realize that you were in your fuzzy cat pajamas. “Ohhh.” With a quick grin, you managed to shoot back. “You gotta be kitten me.”

His grin widened, “nyeh heh heh, mind your catittude around the meowster of puns.”

“What do you mean! My catittude...” You snorted, shaking your head as your voice trailed off. You barely managed to think of a pun before the pause in conversation got too long “I have a very pawsitive catittude thanks.”

“how hissterical,” he responded with a snarky grin. “you should know, you're courting the purrfect storm.”

“The perfect storm, huh? Well then... um...” you missed a beat, and Papyrus's grin widened. Exasperated, you blew a raspberry and finally cracked. “I've got nothing. If this was name puns, I might be able to keep up, but I can't think of them off the top of my head like that. The owners of the shelter I volunteer at are always coming up with stuff like 'Ozzy Pawsbourne', but my favorite so far is Kurt Pawnneggut.”

You passed through the barrier with no problem, and Papyrus finally following you with little hesitation. In fact, his steps soon outpaced yours as you both entered outside. The music was playing, still far away but you could hear it again. Softly, piano keys resounded, building up into a burst of music that cascaded into the song you listened to often. It made for a content quiet between you two as Papyrus relished the view outside the Underground.

“What do you think?” you asked once the song was over.

“hm?” he responded, distracted by the sight of the sky. Recognizing that you probably weren't going to get much from him for a few minutes at least, you shrugged and uttered a quick 'never mind'. Silence fell between you two, but tonight you were just watching him the same way he watched the sky. For each dream like this that you returned to the same place, and met the same monster, you slowly began convincing yourself that this was truly real. That Papyrus was real. And if so, maybe you even believed that he was really trapped underneath a mountain with the rest of the monsters- friends, family, maybe even enough people that a few were strangers. The more you believed in his existence, the more the circumstances surrounding his life filled you with concern.

You were both lost to your thoughts tonight, with him memorizing how it looked 'outside' like he'd never see it again. You never acknowledged your conviction that you were dreaming about someplace real out loud, but you were almost positive that he's never quite faced the fact that you might be real or this 'above the ground' fantasy that you've designed from your own reality. “Hey, do you know where you might be trapped? Which mountain range, I mean.”

He looked at you at you from the corner of his eye sockets, bemused but measuring you up all the same. “dunno, why? thinking of breaking us out... kitten?”

He laughed at his own joke while you set your jaw, and glared at him stubbornly, “Hey! Just because I wear fuzzy cat PJs doesn't mean I couldn't.” You paused, somewhat reluctant to say it out loud but doing so anyways- “Besides, someone ought to, right?”

You were already halfway convinced that you should just to prove you could, by the dismissive way he joked about your rescuing him, steeling yourself to argue your way over with all real life concerns thrown by the wayside when he didn't respond. Instead, he had a look on his face like mild disturbance. You could handle an out and out objection, or the times he avoided the subject, but you were learning quickly that this was a different level of reluctance.

“What's up?” You asked lowly, suddenly uncomfortable with yourself.

He shook his head minutely, “nothing, just... don't. you'll almost certainly have a bad time, human.”

You filed this away to think about later, and changed the subject, “Don't call me human. Isn't that a little impersonal considering you know my name and all?”

“would you prefer i call you kitten?” Papyrus teased with a languid stretch. You immediately pushed him and hid your face in your nightshirt with a long drawn out 'Nooooooo!'. “all right, kitten.”

“NO! STOP!” You demanded.

“ok kitten.”

“NO! Stop using the word 'kitten' in relation to me!”

“ok kitty cat.”

“Not a kitty cat!”

“ok kitty.”

You sighed with exasperation, “Ok fine, I'll settle for Kitty.”

“heh,” Papyrus reached for the cigarettes in his cargo shorts, and tapped out a couple, pulling out one and pushing down the extras. Contemplating the strange circumstances that he makes friends under,he mused aloud, “i wonder if sans would believe me if I told him I met a nice human in my dreams?”

“Why not? At least monsters know that humans exist. If I told anyone but my best friend, then I'd probably get checked out for some sort of childhood regression thing.” you started digging through the soft fine silt of the lake until you found a rock. You didn't see any rocks at first, but maybe because you wanted one, there was one or two that formed for you to use? You were still grasping the strangeness in the dream's extreme forms of convenience.

“i know i haven't, but it feels like i've tried before. Maybe i'm just imagining it, but it's tiring to explain everything.”

You shrugged, “Well, it kinda makes me feel better, even if she doesn't think it's anything more than a dream. maybe just tell him enough so you're not carrying it all by yourself.”

~

“THERE'S SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITH YOU LATELY,” Sans noted, suspiciously.

“really bro?” Papyrus cocked his head. Somehow, he'd slept through the night without a hitch, though he supposed he could attribute that to the new human in his dreams.

“YES! YOU'VE BEEN STAYING AWAKE AT YOUR POST APPROXIMATELY 5 MINUTES LONGER THAN USUAL! AND SLEEPING FOR 2 AND A HALF MINUTES LESS!” Sans calculated, with ridiculous specificity.

“heh, didn't know you were keeping track. guess i'm lucky to have such a rad big brother looking after me.” Papyrus winks to him as Sans preens.

“BUT OF COURSE! MWEH HEH HEH!” Sans then sobered up, far too quickly for Papyrus's liking, as it meant... “PAPYRUS, I'M GLAD YOU'RE FEELING A LITTLE LESS LAZY THAN USUAL, BUT LET ME KNOW IF THERE'S SOMETHING YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT. AS MARVELOUS AS I AM, EVEN I CAN'T READ MINDS!”

Papyrus gave him a weak grin, “sure bro. but aren't you going to be late to your post?”

“MWEH! S-SHOOT I GOT TO GO! I BETTER FIND YOU AT YOUR POST TOO SOON, GOT IT?!” Sans scolded ineffectively, in a whirlwind of frenzied activity before bounding out the door. At least it wasn't the window today.

Papyrus waited for a few moments his expression relaxing close to a frown, before taking a shortcut into Snowdin Forest. He could hear his brother off in the distance, dealing with the mechanisms of different puzzles. Judging by the startled yelp, he was working with the electric puzzle today. A good day to visit the man on the other side of the Ruins doors, rather than whittling time away on sports cars magazines.

Rapping firmly on the looming doors, he announced to his hopefully present audience “knock knock.”

A few beats later, close to when Papyrus was about to give up, a deep calming rumble answered back, “Who's there?”

Papyrus felt himself smile again, pleased that he was here today after all. “goat.”

“... Goat who?” the voice answered again, remaining gentle in tone, but missing a beat for a second.

“goat on a limb and open the door.” Papyrus responded, waiting for the reaction. The booming laugh came on cue as always, but the man on the other side of the door sounded startled. Papyrus's suspicions strengthened, but if the former king of the Underground didn't want to come out, it wasn't his place to question him and force him out. After all, everyone needs a safe place.

“You know I can't do that.” the voice resounded, softly.

“had to give it a try,” Papyrus repressed his shrug, given that his friend wouldn't be able to see it. “knock knock.”

They traded off knock knock jokes, puns, and regular jokes for a few minutes, most of which Papyrus could guess the punchline to before it was said. The familiarity was comforting though, and soon he was able to say, “i've been having odd dreams lately.”

“Oh? About anything in particular?”

“... yes, actually. Well, maybe it's more accurate to say, i've been dreaming about two different things. the first i've had for a while now, but the second... the second is new. very new. and... well. what do you know of the humans?”

Silence reigned. It was quite possible the voice was thinking, but perhaps they left as well.

“They fall here sometimes. Then they leave... I know a few things about humans. Why do you ask? Does it have anything to do with your dreams?”

He remembered the way you offered come down and rescue them. Almost as if the need for human souls to break the barrier was unnecessary. And yet, if you were a real human, what of the way that you could pass through the barrier in your dream without much more than an irritated shake of your head? He didn't know enough.

“there's one that keeps visiting. passing through the barrier in the dream. it doesn't seem to affect them. i'd chalk her existence up to hopeful thinking normally but since she's shown up, i haven't experienced my normal dreams or nightmares. if it's not an illusion, then..?”

“Is that so..? Humans are odd creatures. They're bound by physical mass, and don't need things like love and kindness to exist. However, that doesn't mean that they can't wield magic. In the Monster-Human war, seven human mages banded together to seal us away... seal us Underground. Even with 6 human souls, and the full cooperation of what seems to be... would you suggest that perhaps this person is an immature human mage?”

“i wouldn't doubt it, though dreamwalkers are something of a story even for us. could someone like this be where the stories came from?”

“It wouldn't be impossible. Nonetheless, even if this mage were to come here of her own free will, nothing could be done without extracting her soul.” His voice drew to a near murmur though Papyrus could still feel the vibrations through the door he leaned his back to.

A sense of mournful longing fell over the atmosphere. Soft snowflakes fell and added to the solid crust of blinding crystalline snow that blanketed the forest. The mood nagged at Papyrus, forcing him to recall a poem that found its way in the Underground.

“i see.”

“Yes. If they were to come down, particularly if they could truly pass the barrier and come through that way, they would... Queen Toriel would... there would be no happy ending for such a person. Please, be sure that this child stays away. On that note... my friend. Will you make me a promise, before we return to lighter topics?”

~

Thoroughly depressed, on returning to his guard station, Papyrus found himself recalling that poem, despite his best efforts as he slouched forward, “the woods are snowy, dark and deep. but i have promises to keep. and miles to go before i sleep... and miles to go before I sleep.”

He sighed, feeling weighed down as the air left his ribcage, feeling for his pack of cigarettes to fend off the internal sense of heaviness and give him something to focus on, “why did i promise him?”

He remained at his station, staring straight ahead without seeing anything for a couple of hours before Sans came bounding up. “PAPYRUS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? IT'S ALMOST LUNCH TIME!”

“tibia honest, i thought you'd be happy i was at my post.” he japed, trying to divert attention and drive his brother up a tree in exasperation. He did climb one trying to get away from his constant punning, it might be funny to see if he'll do it again.

“NO!! THAT WAS TERRIBLE!” Sans screeched with indignation, but shook his head and clenched his fists resolutely. It looks like he was starting to pick up a habit or two from Alphys. “WAIT, I WON'T BE DISTRACTED. PAPYRUS! YOU'VE BEEN ACTING STRANGE LATELY, AND WHEREAS MOST OF IT SEEMS LIKE A GOOD THING, I'VE COME BACK JUST TO FIND YOU IN A GRADE A FUNK! IF YOU WON'T FEEL BETTER, THEN I WILL INSIST ON HONESTY FROM YOU, BROTHER.”

Sans plopped down on the snow and stared hard, his wide grin gritted in determination. It seems he's not about to move anywhere. Papyrus thought of your suggestion. Just a little bit... wouldn't be so tough, right?

Sans's face lit up with open relief as he began with talking about the dreams. Whereas he'd been sparse on details when telling the voice from behind the Ruins door, keeping his own identity a secret and remaining in isolation, Sans was the perfect audience in that he put together the picture with just a few details and soon Papyrus found himself telling him nearly everything. He felt a little better afterwards, not completely, but enough for him to be led out from his station and have Sans make lunch. It was nearly edible today.

Then, that night, a child fell into the Underground.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm alive! And I managed to sketch up this quick comic for everyone's patience in the last few weeks. It's been hectic. Actually, it'll still be hectic in the next week too (spoiler alert- it's 3 tests, a rough draft paper, and a notebook due kind of hectic). Also, the black and white version is on tumblr. All my apologies for taking so long!  
> https://agraulisvanillae.tumblr.com/  
> Extra thanks for the Anon that messaged me during this time, encouragement and reassurance is always appreciated!  
> Edit: One more thing- in case it wasn't blatantly obvious, Papyrus was thinking of "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. Seemed appropriate for the chapter.


	37. No Fair!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When did you get a love interest rival?

The fair so far was a lot more chaotic than you remembered with people swarming from stall to stall, or waiting in lines for rides and similar attractions. It was expensive as well, you noted when everyone ganged up in a couple of the ticket lines so that you could get started on the fun. You counted it a good thing that you'd put aside cash for the event once you saw how much money they wanted for the tickets, because you were certain you'd lose track of spending otherwise with food and drinks being a separated expense. 

The first thing you guys did was to check on the cooking results. Doubtless, you'd all scatter to different attractions soon but Toriel was the first to suggest it and everyone followed her lead with you and Papyrus both getting words of encouragement.

“As long as you cooked with lots of PASSION, you'll have placed just fine!” Undyne practically slammed her arms over both of your shoulders, pulling you in. At least you could be grateful that Papyrus was caught too, mostly because it meant she couldn't noogie either of you.

“Given your inclination for science, I wouldn't be surprised if you won the top prize,” Asgore encouraged. It was thoughtful to remember what you told him about your major, but you were really hoping that he didn't think you made cinnamon buns with a test tube or something. 

The hall was filled with people ogling the different projects with a few hovering over their entries, and on one side you could see paintings and drawings as well as local high school projects on display. Further down were rock exhibits from people's personal collections, quilts, and other projects. The large room with the cooking contest results was in the middle left entrance and you'd looked around until you spotted the yeast breads contest results. You'd managed to get one of the many yellow second place ribbons for the cinnamon rolls, but Papyrus's entry followed along in at third place. You were frowning critically to yourself, trying to figure out what you could do better, but Papyrus was ecstatic at the results.

“WOWIE!! WE PLACED! I-I MEAN, OF COURSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD MAKE IT IN THE TOP 3 BUT YOU GOT SECOND PLACE!” Papyrus cheered for the two of you, and you relaxed enough to give him a small smile. The time for competitive spirit was later, you supposed, but Papyrus had made huge improvements from putting glitter in pasta at the beginning of the year. That was definitely cause for celebration.

“C'mon, let's go to the scariest rollercoaster ride here, so we can scream our heads off,” you smirked. “I wanna lose my voice after today.”

“Is F-frisk t-t-tall enough to ride that one?” Alphys asked, hesitantly staring up at the behemoth that towered over the fairgrounds. Frisk shook their head and pointed to the carousel, tugging on Sans jacket. There were not only horses, but exotic animals like camels, hippos, cheetahs, and more domestic animals like overly large dogs, cats, and canaries.

“okay okay, 'nuff horsin' around,” Sans chuckled. “i'm comin'.”

Amber wound an arm through yours and stuck her tongue out at Papyrus with a wink. “Let's go... Kitty!”

You barely had time to utter “Oh no” with good-natured exasperation before Papyrus nabbed your available arm.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING WITH MY BEST FRIEND?!”

“Obviously MY best friend, and we were gonna go to that humongous roller-coaster before getting a SINGLE ice cream to eat between the two of us.” She humphed, and mirrored Papyrus's default stance with a hand pressed to her hip. You were now pinned in by two very sassy looking people, both of them leaning in almost conspiratorially in front of you with their possessiveness. You had no doubt that this had more to do with her personal agenda of getting him to compete with her and step up to the challenge of courting you, but Papyrus simply smiled cheerfully.

“OH GOOD! CAN I JOIN?”

Was she sure that the previous rejection was a misunderstanding and not exactly what it looks like? You really suspected that he was just looking to have a good time like everyone else. 

That's fine. Honestly.

But... Alphys thought it was a misunderstanding too though?

Your head pulsed with a sudden pain. Grimacing, you wanted to rub at your temples but you were arm bound by both Amber and Papyrus who'd been filling the walk to the ride with their own banter. This sort of mental back and forth could easily be resolved if you just asked, but the fair isn't exactly the time and place for you to have a romantic crisis.

“Are you okay?”Amber leaned in closely for a second to check on you but you shook your head and offered a small smile in response as Papyrus watched from your other side.

“I'm fine, just overthinking a few things.” You offered by way of explanation, the three of you approaching the long line.

“Oh heyyy, like, Papyrus right?” a monster suddenly called, cutting in the line next to you three. They sort of reminded you of a Spinda. “Or do you go solely by the Gr-r-r-reat Papyrus?”

“O-OH, HELLO! YES OF COURSE, BUT MY FRIENDS JUST CALL ME PAPYRUS!” He posed quickly, with one arm still wrapped in yours, but the new monster yanked him forward.

“That's so cool!” 

His arm was forcibly pulled from yours, so that he had to step closer to them and listen to something being murmured. He suddenly lit up and murmured something back, in one of those rare moments where he was quiet enough that the ambient noise of the fair drowned his words out. You rubbed the stinging feeling from the inside of your elbow as you watched with a distinctly taken aback by this new person, but you weren't really sure what you should do about it. The feeling of suddenly being shunted by the side was ugly, and made you feel a little sick but he wasn't stopping them either.

“OH SO THAT'S WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING SINCE WE'VE MOVED UP HERE!” They suddenly got to talking about the Underground, reminiscing and you glanced to Amber with an uneasy smile and a stiff shrug. She returned the shrug, but the two of you fell quiet for a few seconds as you stepped forward with the line.

“WOWIE, THE RIDE GOES UP REALLY HIGH DOESN'T?” He remarked, his eyes following the length of the stairs up to the top of ride. He was starting to sweat, much to the dismay of the new tag along who was periodically shaking it off. To their credit, they didn't actually let their iron grip up.

“Oh please do pr-r-rotect me if the ride breaks down, won't you?” they pleaded beseechingly. You thought they were laying it on thick, but even so, the thought that they were playing it up to get your attention successfully annoyed you. Amber's eyes narrowed as she noticed you subconsciously bringing up a hand to your collar.

As the line eventually got shorter and you approached the ride, Amber said loudly at the very last minute. “Oh, have you heard of the accidents that occurred here like 20 years ago?”

“What.” You deadpanned disbelievingly, but Papyrus squawked,

“W-WHAT?!”

“Oh yeahhh apparently a screw went loose somewhere and- oh, right here's my tickets.” She purposely broke off her narrative to address the annoyed worker.

“WAIT!! W-WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE SCREW?!” Papyrus demanded, looking very worried suddenly.

“Oh nooo we're getting on the ride without a chance to explain what kinds of horrible hauntings that plague this ride~!” Amber yelled teasingly while dragging you along with. She had a satisfied smile as you were both buckled into one seat and Papyrus was buckled in next to the new monster friend in the seat behind you.

“That was unnecessary,” you muttered to her, the rollercoaster clicking to life and slowly approaching the first hump before the huge drop.

“Worth IIITTT!!!” she screamed to high heavens gleefully, and as much as you wanted to roll your eyes at her, you were too busy staring at the scenery blurring past and the knot that tied up in your stomach was swooped up into the intense elevator feeling. You probably should've gotten physically nauseous, but once the momentum swooped back up and slowed down, you were more focused on how your surroundings looked. You wanted to draw it later.

Once the ride settled to the stop and you were allowed off, everyone stumbled off with wobbly knees, Papyrus practically draping himself over you with apparent dizziness.

“NO... MORE...” He groaned. You laughed at how unexpectedly unbalanced he was, lurching even when he tried to sit up, and stepped close to make sure he didn't fall on his tailbone.

“Too many loop-de-loos?” You teased. The other monster literally just rolled past you, lurching forward in total free fall. “OH MY GOD are you okay?”

After making sure both monsters were all right, sitting them both at a bench, you suggested, “Maybe we should avoid the crazy rides for now and just play some games.”

Amber muttered to you, “You're too nice, you KNOW that random monster was trying to start something.”

“Listen, I'm just happy my inner ear 'rolled' with the ride. I'd hate to be that guy over there.” You pointed to someone who'd stumbled to the conveniently placed trashcan located near the entrance and proceeded to puke up their guts. “I'm pretty sure fair food doesn't taste as good on the way back up.”

“UGH STOP!!!” Papyrus shouted over the sounds of retching. 

~

Bzzzt!!! While you were trying to take a shot at the basketball hoops.

Bzzzt!!! While Amber was forcing everyone to stay still for a group picture.

Bzzzt!!! While you were all splitting a giant mound of multi-flavored cotton candy.

“Hey, is it just me or is your phone buzzing a lot today?” Amber frowned. You hummed in agreement, mouthing at tuft of pink and offering the reduced cone to the other monster so that they could pull off a piece of blue.

“O-OH ITS NOTHING REALLY.” he responded evasively, his sweating giving him away instantly. “H-HEY WHAT'S THAT OVER THERE? A PUZZLE?!”

He took off in the direction of a booth almost immediately, effectively ending that line of interrogation. The little monster that'd been tagging along shot up too. “Things have been fun but I really gotta be going! And hey, sorry about crashing the date, you're super nice, let me have your number? Let me know if you see any h-h-h-hot guys!”

You exchanged numbers with a perplexed look from Amber, and once they left, she turned to guffaw against the building. “What in the actual friggity fruke frack was that?! No seriously. Y'all are just unbelievable... you had a rival and made FRIENDS with the rival.”

“Being nice is its own weapon.” You wagged a finger at her, but grinning as you did so, glancing to her out of the corner of your eyes briefly. Amber tugged you in the direction of face painting booth so that you both could sit down for the fair artists. They looked somewhat relieved to have adults that could hold still for 5 seconds, but mostly exhausted and overworked. Still, that whole odd incident was strange... and why'd that monster appear just to take off so fast anyways? It was almost like they were only supposed to show up for so long before setting off.

As you'd mused, the artist drew over your cheeks with primary yellow and green, before finishing it off with a black brush. 

“Hey, it looks like Flowey!” Amber remarked. The fair artist held a mirror up to confirm that without much more prompting than you suggesting 'draw a flower', they'd unintentionally drew a smiling flower on your cheek. 

“Whoops, I guess so. Think that's gonna be weird for him, that there's probably tons of humans running around with his face on their face?” You asked, offhandedly. You were actually looking around for Papyrus, but he'd disappeared entirely from sight. He was no longer talking animatedly to the man at the booth or throwing basketball hoops. 

“Faception!” Amber arced her hand from the other for dramatic effect. “Eh, I bet he'd like it.”

You tugged on her sleeve to pull her attention back to the fair,“Where'd Papyrus go?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still don't know why I insist on that title, but I like it. I had 100% intended getting this chapter out last week like I'm a person who can update as promised, but... well, everything that might go wrong kinda did. Besides the tests I was anticipating, I also got a sinus infection that knocked me out as soon as I stopped using Sudafed, which incidentally... don't use that for more than a couple of days if you can help it. Then, couple that with a pet dying, I wasn't in the right frame of mind for a carnival chapter at all. So, I apologize for that, but I also want to shout out- Today is a double update. No joke. I'm editing the next chapter right now, so just wait a little longer for the next chapter later on today!


	38. Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is why you never ask Mettaton for help for anything. Ever.

Amber looked around, starting to furrow her eyebrows, perplexed. “Good question. Lemme look around and see if I can't find him. Stay here, I'll be back.” 

She took off, leaving on your own. It was sunset at the fair at this point, but you spotted Sans at a random hot dog stand, and wandered over, dodging people now. You asked, “Any clue where your bro went?” 

He sort of shrugged it off. “beats me. you're the one that was with him.”

“By the way, why are you on the wrong side of the hot dog stand anyways?”

“i dunno what you mean,” Sans said with amusement and hands you a... what? A hot dog that has ears? Is this some new marketing gimmick? “i'm standing right where i should be.”

“Hm...” you shrugged. “All right then. Well, in that case I'm probably gonna go blow my money over on the fishing game. See y-”

“could I ask a question?”

You felt yourself become nervous instantly, thinking of Papyrus's appearance into your dream, placing him directly in proximity with Gaster. “Sure?”

“you don't sound too sure about that,” Sans observed. “it's safe to assume you probably like my bro to some extent, but lately i've been wondering if you really like him enough. You didn't exactly fight it when someone pulled him away.”

You looked at him with real surprise. He looked back, evenly. A heartbeat too long, you managed to squeak out, “You saw that?”

“frisk and I passed by on our way to the dunking booth.” 

Speaking of, you didn't see the kid anywhere nearby, it made you extra uncomfortable not to know if anyone else was close by, “Where is Fris-”

“d o n ' t c h a n g e t h e s u b j e c t.” Sans rumbled.

Rubbing your temple, you felt more than heard his words like every other time he'd changed his voice. You stayed quiet, suddenly certain that scrambling to explain yourself wouldn't help you when Sans was in this kind of mood. “. . .”

“how long has it been since you two have been dancing around any serious progression anyway?” He started the uncomfortable conversation with a rhetorical question. “papyrus says you haven't been too terribly straight with him, which while i appreciate covering for those 'drawings' of yours, i doubt that's all you've been avoiding. to be honest, its pretty shitty of you to let him go thinking that he's raped you.”

“W-WHAT!” you couldn't restrain your outburst. Sans grinned dryly.

“my reaction exactly buddy.”

“N-no, you don't understand, I thought I was the one that-” you gulped with your reluctance but with a little determination, you managed to march through it.“I thought I'd raped him. I didn't have his permission and I had no idea that touching him the way I did would turn out that way. He ran away from me so I thought he knew from that incident that I liked him and was uncomfortable. I just didn't want to scare him away for good.” 

With a sigh, Sans said “then why don't you tell him exactly what you just told me?”

“I... don't know.” you sighed as well. “Sans, are you trying to tell me that Papyrus and I have literally been going in circles, dealing with the same exact feelings, and acting like total idiots in the meantime?”

Gently, Sans shoved you off with a flare of blue magic. “go ask him. just remember- you're going to have a bad time if you let him get hurt.”

“I'll... do that. Once Amber finds him, we'll talk.” You promised. 

You ran out of tickets and cash with the exception of about 10 bucks to keep yourself fed waiting, but you were now running around with stuffed animals for both Amber and Papyrus, as well as a new fish that you hoped would survive the drive back. Night finally fell over the carnival, but it was hard to tell with all of the bright flashing lights. It was nice, but you really were hoping they'd show up soon or at least someone besides Sans, since he'd long fallen asleep at the stand he was apparently attending.

“Hey, you!” Someone called, and you looked over with equal parts of hopeful and trepidation.

The cat monster that you'd met earlier, Paint-Tail? Mettaton called them Burgerpants later but... it didn't exactly sound like a flattering nickname. You retorted casually, “I'm not a 'you' y'know.” 

“Er, sorry? But uh, I'veliterallybeenlookingforyoueverywhereandmyoldbosswillskinmealiveifIdon'tgetyouoverthereintime.” He said with such wide eyes and intense trembling paranoid you just shook your head in confusion and somewhat concerned. Did he drink ten energy drinks since last time you'd bumped into him?

“Excuse me, sorry?” You prompted.

“Just, come with me!” he went to grab at your hand, and then backed off in nervous edginess, and then sort of raised his hands as if to hold your shoulders. Despite your trepidation leaving the area, it'd been awhile now. You were close to start looking for them yourself, but having an extra set of eyes could be useful. Paint-Tail finally dragged you off by the elbow although with as minimal contact as possible. 

You couldn't help but chuckle uncomfortably, “I don't have cooties y'know.”

“Shi- Nononono it's just that Mettaton'll do weird embarrassing things if I do ANYTHING to make him mad!” the poor guy muttered nervously.

“Sounds like there's a story there, wanna tell it?” You asked, doing your best to keep him calm and not let his nervous energy make you jumpy. For a second, as his face suddenly went blank, and you thought it backfired. Then

“So I wanted to be an actor..!”

~

“IS SHE HERE YET?” Papyrus's normally limitless energy has long been bounding out of control, going far beyond a regular pace and into spinning across the curtained stage.

“Papyrus, darling she'll be here soon, I PROMISE! Otherwise someone's going to have this CD blasted across the fairgrounds and I'm sure they wouldn't want that...” This is the part where Mettaton would normally strike a sinister pose with a vindictive glare, but alas it was more convenient for him in his Mettaton Ex body than in his rectangular form.

“BUT THE SHOW'S STARTING LATE ALREADY...” Papyrus peered anxiously out and seeing a small crowd, panicked and hid back inside the curtains again.

“That's fine, it builds suspense.” Mettaton feigns a yawn and buffs his metallic 'fingers'. The walkie talkie crackled, with Burgerpant's high strung voice emitting from it.

“Bird's in the nest, b-boss...”

“OH OH OH!!!” Both of them scrambled to their positions with nothing less than the maximal amount of backflips and dramatic posing.

~

“So, I assume this is Mettaton-centric somehow?” You tried to get Paint-Tail to clue you in on what to expect. You both were hanging at the corner of the stage, you searching the crowd for Papyrus, and he smoking. You made a point to step upwind of the smoke drifting from the cat monster, but accidentally startled him instead.

He jumped a mile up in the air, quite literally a few feet high before landing again and turning back to you with his tail twitching spasmodically like he actually forgot you were there. “K-kinda??!” 

He clammed up so that you couldn't get anything more from him, and so you assumed that it was just his usual nerves associated with girls. Despite multiple reassurances that you weren't going to laugh at him once he told his story, true enough since he was such a nervous wreck, he seemed unable to remain relaxed around you for any longer than a few seconds. You're halfway convinced those few seconds of 'calm' was him freaking out internally instead.

The music started playing, very familiar thanks to a friend who sent out a joke link back in high school. You grinned in anticipation, “Oooh no, he heard THAT song huh?”

And then out prances Papyrus in the most ridiculous suit you'd ever seen him in. Seriously, you couldn't keep your eyes off him in shock, but that was mostly because his suit was catching the light in the way that only a suit modeled after an honest-to-god disco ball could. As a large rectangle tonight instead of his humanoid form, Mettaton was displaying the lyrics to the song.

“WE'RE NO STRANGERS TO LOVE! YOU KNOW THE RULES, AND SO DO I!!!”

The crowd was cheering, but personally you couldn't breathe. Not for the right reasons, mind you, but Paint-Tail was simply smoking as he observed you losing the fight with hysterical laughter. “Well... you think it's funny now... but...” 

“...you seem nice. So, I'm sorry in advance.”

“Wait what do you mean-” you barely had time to ask, with instant alarm and suspicion, before he forcibly shoves you up onto the stage where you instantly freeze with red-faced petrification. Papyrus danced over with a wink, doing his best to pull you into the dance when you were just barely processing that you were on a stage with a steadily growing crowd.

“I JUST WANNA TELL YOU HOW I'M FEELING! GOTTA MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND-”

Oh no, this is really happening. Finally, having processed this, you clamp your hands over your face and remain rigidly still. You made the mistake of peering past your fingers only for your flush to deepen. Oh no, there's so many people and you don't even know what to do!

“NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP! NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN! NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND DESERT YOU! NEVER GONNA MAKE YOU CRY, NEVER GONNA SAY GOODBYE. NEVER GONNA TELL A LIE AND HURT YOU!”

“Is this what you've been doing this entire time while you were gone?” You leaned away from the mike to try and ask but the music easily drowned your voice out. Papyrus still seemed wrapped in the moment, and grabbed you by the waist forcing you to stumble and try to dance along awkwardly with the routine that you were not rehearsed in. Why does this feel like this comes from some sort of romantic comedy movie?

“WE'VE KNOWN EACH OTHER FOR SO LONG! YOUR HEART'S BEEN ACHING BUT YOU'RE TOO SHY TO SAY IT. INSIDE WE BOTH KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON,” Papyrus twirls you around one last time before setting you back on your feet and kneeling down in front of you. “WE KNOW THE GAME AND WE'RE GONNA PLAY IT.”

You're suddenly very much petrified in place. This feels like a romantic comedy. Why does this feel like a romantic comedy. Oh my god, this could be a scene from a romantic comedy?

Your brain kept skipping like a scratched up record, your heart pounding so hard you could feel it in your chest, everything in your internal system so loud and overloaded that you almost missed,

“KITTY, IT'S TIME I EXPRESS MY FEELINGS. IT'S TIME THAT I TOLD YOU... I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS... LOVE YOU! WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

You just got rick and roll proposed. Completely short circuited, you weren't even aware of the solid red that you turned, blushing all the way to the roots of your hair. You raise the hand that he wasn't holding as if to say something, and then stopped. Moments passed, as Papyrus patiently waits for you to recover. The people that showed up, including your friends, were completely silent. A deep breath, try to say something cool, and composed.

“What the fuck?!”

Oh, well. Hm. That wasn't quite what you had in mind.

~

“WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM?!” Undyne practically slammed Mettaton against a tent wall, but the effect was lost as he just wheeled through. Regardless, as the only possible person to throw Mettaton's insane weight around, the point was made.

“Look, we were all tired of them dancing around the issue darling. Even Papyrus was tired of not being able to hold his beloved. I just gave them a push in the more... dramatic direction.” Mettaton explained.

“BY TELLING HIM TO PROPOSE TO HER?” Undyne shouted. “LIKE, HOW DID YOU GET PAPYRUS TO EVEN DO THAT?! NO ONE GETS MARRIED BEFORE THEY DATE, NOT EVEN HUMANS DO THAT!!!”

“... wait, humans don't propose marriage in order to finally hold their one true love?” Mettaton asked, seriously dumbstruck. He seemed genuinely confused, and Undyne kneaded between her eye and eye patch. He crossed his arms after a few moments and muttered, “Maybe I need to update some of my reading material from the Underground.”

Undyne groaned. “Why does anyone even listen to you?”

~

“W-WAIT, SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT'S NOT THE MOST ROMANTIC WAY THAT HUMANS GET INTO RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER?”

So, your original assumption that Papyrus and Mettaton watched a bunch of romantic comedies was only somewhat wrong. In truth they had watched video after video of proposal strategies on Booptube, and whereas Papyrus had ORIGINALLY understood what marriage was, Mettaton had convinced him otherwise. Now, you and him were both sitting in your respective corners in his convertible in the parking lot, both of you withering in intense mortification. The video of the debacle Alphys posted already had close to a 100,000 views and it's only been half an hour.

“N-no... well, maybe in Victorian times or like ancient history,” you mumbled. “But, these days humans just ask each other on dates. Like monsters. Or anyone really.”

“OKAY THEN. I'M JUST GOING TO LANGUISH HERE. THINK ABOUT LIFE CHOICES. DIE A LITTLE INSIDE.”

Both of you remained silent for a full minute before you finally squeaked, “Oh no, Fishy!” In mortal terror for your new fish friend, you dug in the large bag that had been swinging with you during the entire dance number and pulled out the plastic bag. The new goldfish friend was alive and well, and judging from the darting through the small bag, extremely upset at this entire chain of events.

“FISHY?” Papyrus took a break from dying a little inside to peer at the goldfish.

“Yep, won him earlier. I think the little thing's kind of upset though... I hope he'll be okay until I can get home.”

“DO YOU WANT TO DROP BY A PET STORE? WE CAN COME BACK FOR OUR FRIENDS. I'M, ADMITTEDLY, NOT WILLING TO SEE THEM RIGHT NOW ANYWAYS...” Papyrus offered. You smiled ruefully as he started the vehicle.

“I'm so sorry I didn't really say anything earlier, it was just... a bit overwhelming,” you told him, staring hard at the fish. Almost as if feeling the intensity of your stare, the fish kicked into high gear and flipped through the bag like it was trying to start a whirlpool. “Papyrus I...”

You gulped hard, almost tearing up before you could work up an even composed tone, “I kinda thought you didn't like me that way, actually. You ran away a couple of times after I accidentally uh, held your soul in me? If that's one way of putting it..? But then, you also kinda sort of avoided me. So, I just didn't want to make you that uncomfortable again.”

“I'M SORRY,” Papyrus told the steering wheel, his gaze fixed on the road. “I GUESS IT'S MY TURN TO MAKE THINGS UNCOMFORTABLE? OR DID I MAKE THINGS UNCOMFORTABLE TO BEGIN WITH? I'D BEEN TRYING TO MAKE UP FOR THAT, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE I JUST MADE THINGS WORSE...”

“You have nooo idea. Papyrus, I had-” you paused for a second. “-absolutely, no intentions of saying anything about how I felt. Or rather, feel right now even, 'cuz I thought you already knew. I don't think you made things worse at all.”

You fidgeted with your shirt collar, feeling overwhelmed for the few moments before he spots an open pet shop and pulls in. He put himself out there, so you should be able to...

Papyrus undoes his seat belt and moves to get out, when you snag his gloved hand. He was still wearing the ridiculous disco ball glitter suit, a fact that you pointedly ignore as you unlock your own seat belt and leaned forward with the fish balanced on your lap. “Don't get me wrong, the fact that you let Mettaton arrange our getting together absolutely terrifies me and I hope to god that there won't be a repeat incident-”

“NO!!! NO, NO THANK YOU!!” Papyrus protested, and you laughed with exasperation at him and yourself.

“Okay, that's good but dammit Puppy! What I'm trying to say is that I freakin' love you too!”

You breathed deep, and then declared, “All right, I'm gonna go take a turn in the languishing corner of the back seat now.” Your bravery quota reaching capacity for the night, you began climbing over the seats in a raw flustered panic.

“WHAT! DON'T YOU DARE!!” he picks you up to pull you in a bone crushing hug as you save Fishy at the last second and presses his teeth to your cheek. It took you a second to realize that he was technically kissing your cheek, just enough time for him to pull back with a fresh flush of embarrassment. “I CAN'T REALLY KISS YOU, FOR I DON'T HAVE LIPS-”

You pushed yourself forward and kissed him directly on the teeth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew! You have NO idea how long I've been waiting to post this one (it was still summer when I wrote it) but it had to be edited as I went through the chapters leading up to it. So, like the last update mentioned, it's been busy. I'll try to update on time and let's hope for the best! But, prepare for the worst. We'll see how things go for me.  
> Oh right, I almost forgot! Story time, back in 8th grade my best friend gave me red roses for my birthday. I was so embarrassed I shrieked "What the hell!" in front of my grandma. Oops. Any of you have similar stories?


	39. In One Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night isn't over yet.

“I'm gonna be honest, I kinda still don't want to go back there. I'm pretty sure people know my face now. That'll be weird.” You complained at the register. Your new goldfish was going to live a pretty spartan lifestyle to begin with considering you were only left with enough to buy some gold gravel, but at least he'll... she'll? have a small bowl to start out with. You weren't too savvy on your fish facts, but you were almost certain that you'd have to replace the plastic aquarium to keep it happy, so it was probably for the best you didn't buy a ton of accessories right away.

“PEOPLE RECOGNIZE ME EVERY DAY, SEEING AS I'M SO GREAT AND ALL! IT'S NOT SUCH A BIG DEAL. NYEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus boasted, with you quirking an eyebrow with amusement. 

“So it doesn't bother you that the hit count on that video has likely shot past 100,000 views by now?” You asked slyly. 

“NO WAY!” His response surprised you a little, you'd been expecting him to suddenly start sweating and squirming in place, but instead he grinned confidently as he said that. “NOT WHEN I'VE SUCCESSFULLY ASKED YOU OUT! NYEH HEH HEH!”

That was true, you supposed as you nabbed your stuff off of the counter and received your whopping change of 4 cents with your receipt. You felt the floor disappear from your feet as he'd suddenly picked you up and carried you out of the store. “Pffft hey! I can walk!” you couldn't help a flustered laugh, and waved bye to the staring pet store cashier. They were rubbing their eyes like they just experienced a shiny hallucination. 

“NOT WHEN WE'RE GOING TO THE BEACH!” he cheered, his face flushed but triumphant. Did you make him feel like this? You could feel your face get hot and wiped at your cheeks self-consciously. With him smiling like this, you couldn't fight your own elation rising up in your chest and feeling a tad overwhelmed. You hid your face into his chest and covered your head with the disco jacket.

“Is that a date?” you murmured through his shirt.

“WELL, NORMALLY OUR FIRST DATE WOULD BE AT MY FAVORITE PLACE TO HANG OUT, BUT YOU'VE ALREADY BEEN IN MY ROOM! ALSO, I'M PRETTY CERTAIN WE'VE SKIPPED A FEW STEPS FROM THE DATING HANDBOOK-”

You snorted through his chest, earning a mock severe look from Papyrus. 

“LISTEN, WE ONLY SKIPPED STRAIGHT TO THE END OF THE BOOK ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS! YOU WITH THE WHOLE-” he waved his hand as expressively as he could when holding you, so ended up thwapping your knee a little bit, face turning redder as he averted his gaze. “-SOUL TOUCHING... AND I WITH THE ERR... PROPOSAL.”

“Mm hm,” you hummed, enjoying listening to his blustering. You were set down in the seat with a little too much enthusiasm, bouncing a little in place before he practically vaulted over the hood of his convertible. 

“SO! I REALLY DON'T THINK WE WON'T SUFFER TOO MUCH FROM ONE MORE DEVIATION. I'LL CONSULT THE HANDBOOK IF WE NEED HELP.” Papyrus finished explaining, getting the car going again. You nodded, your face flushing again, so that you to scrub at your cheeks after setting the new goldfish bowl at your feet. 

“Speaking of souls... you know how you were showing me how to work with magic before?” you asked. “Can we return to that at some point? Undyne doesn't really hold back.”

“YOU DO KNOW THE REASON WE STOPPED, RIGHT?” Papyrus responded dubiously.

Shifting your eyes to the side, and smirking before glancing back up to his face. “I'll be gentle?”

“NYEE!” Never before have you actually heard him squeak, eliciting a laugh from you. The car veered off to the side a little bit with him jumping in place as you pressed against the seat belt's limit to sit closer to him and watch the scenery pass by. It was a moonless sky, but the ocean you were traveling along reflected the light of the stars and presumably the light of the city. You could see the lights still on at the Warbler's cafe, though the birds were shadowed by the building itself.

Once he was parked in the lot near the beach, you were halfway out of the car before he scrambled to the other side of the car and picked you up again, lifting you almost uncomfortably high. “Whoa! You were serious about that!”

“OF COURSE I WAS SERIOUS! I DON'T LIE ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THAT.” Papyrus hugged you close, tightly holding you to him around your waist as you instinctively throw your arms around his neck in the sudden drop so that his skull was practically pushed into your chest. You both froze like that, unused to the sudden proximity. “WHAT IS THAT?”

You were slowly falling, so he bumped you back up to change his grip beneath your thighs and nuzzled his skull against your chest, trying to listen to something. OH.

“I think you're trying to listen to my heartbeat.” You chuckled, a little embarrassed that he could hear your racing pulse. “This has been a crazy day.”

“IF YOU REALLY WANT TO TRAIN TOGETHER, THEN I WON'T OBJECT.” He admitted to your chest. “YOUR HEART SOUNDS NICE.” 

Nonetheless, he moved so that soon he was standing on sand and you were looking out to the ocean. You pointed near the pier. “Let's sit over there, huh?”

You weren't released when he sat down, rather he just forced you to sit on his lap. You huffed, a tad bemused now. “Am I not allowed to touch the ground now?”

“I JUST WANT TO LISTEN TO YOUR HEART BEAT A LITTLE LONGER.” 

“All right,” you assented, left to thinking as you'd both sat there in the corner of the beach like this. Your mind kept chasing itself in circles, going over the events of the day. Finishing a birthday present, to the fair, yet another talk with Sans, and Papyrus accidentally proposing when he meant to ask you out. After it was all said and done, you realized in that moment that you were pretty tired. So much happening. You were drooping a little in his arms, nearly asleep, when you felt a mental yet distinct shove. You opened your eyes to look to Papyrus, quizzically. Feeling you shift, he looked back to you.

“ARE YOU TIRED? YOU SHOULD BE, AFTER MY PROPOSAL! WINK!” He winked, audibly. You began to shake your head at the last part, before remembering he asked you if you were tired.

“Well, maybe just a little bit. I'd been up since super early today, and the coffee earlier has been long gone.” You admitted. Maybe you were imagining it. “Sorry, I guess this is gonna be kind of a boring date.” 

He fell back, and you on top of him. “I'LL WAKE YOU UP WHEN IT'S TIME TO GO BACK, SO GO AHEAD AND SLEEP.” 

You were too tired to really resist, squirming so that you could rest more comfortably on top of him. As an afterthought, you leaned up to lay one kiss to his mandible, and then again, and once more to his teeth. He flushed again, and you smiled contentedly before curling again to sleep. You felt yourself falling asleep, just to be shoved. Wide awake, you didn't bother to ask Papyrus if it was him. This time, you could feel the force being projected somewhere in your mind. 

Gaster?

You were trying to figure out what was happening, keeping your eyes closed even as Papyrus was checking his phone. Why weren't you allowed to go to sleep?

“HUH?” Papyrus muttered. Somewhere, you could hear movement. You jolted upright, startling him, “KI-?!”

You put your hand over his mouth, looking behind him and listening intently. You put a finger to your lips, and rolled off him, keeping close to the ground. It wasn't long before you heard a piece of gravel skittering across the ground. Someone else was here, and they were trying to be stealthy. You tugged Papyrus in the direction of beneath the pier, and realized pretty quickly the big flaw in your plan. That suit was ostentatious, so much so that any light was reflected. Once behind the pillar, you leaned up to whisper as quietly as you could, “Take off the jacket, and stay quiet.”

Instead of blustering or protesting, he nodded, expression chalky pale. You closed your eyes, trying to track the direction of the movement instead of focusing on the stripping skeleton in front of you. You couldn't tell where the intruder was at all, but you were grateful for the advance warning from Gaster. Any later, and you were almost positive that you and Papyrus would've been caught. The footage from your apartment sprang to mind, unbidden. You considered the skills that you'd learned over the last couple of months, but unfortunately you hadn't learned any attacks at all. You literally just dragged Papyrus into your dream when you got scared.

A touch to your arm pulled you out of your thoughts, and you blinked. You almost asked “Where?” when you realized that he was wearing his battle body again, only to answer that question yourself. Underneath the large suit, of course. The only thing that couldn't be worn underneath was his boots which was fortunately glittery and not straight up reflective. Not ideal still, but better. You glanced behind the pillar where you last heard the sounds. You nearly felt your heart stop when you saw someone wandering slowly around the beach, searchingly.

Papyrus pulled you forward, and you both slunk toward the other side of the pier. You hated how you could hear sand getting kicked up with your every step, adrenaline pumping so that you were acutely aware of your every movement. Papyrus was surprisingly stealthy, able to distribute his weight evenly across the sand and keep too much noise from emitting. You found yourself admiring his movements, and tried to emulate them.

You were distracted with trying to remain quiet so that you almost gasped when you bumped into him, who grabbed you again and pulled you back into the edge. You would've asked what it was, but you could easily guess that there was someone on the other side too. An organized ambush?

You were no longer thinking of the tape. Instead, your eyes widened as suddenly the feverish night inside the classroom started making sense. The person that had to have unlocked the classroom, and the car that sped off in a sudden rush late at night. You clenched your jaw. At this rate, they'll find you both. Something had to be done, but without a decent attack... what did that leave?

You can heal and defend, which meant that maybe between you and Papyrus, an encounter could be weighed in your favor. That would mean that Papyrus could get into trouble for attacking a human though, and that could mean trouble. Before meeting him, you'd learned that a court case between a monster and a human had ended in favor of the human. It was currently being appealed, traveling higher and higher up into the state court, but speculation projected it to reach the Supreme Court. In other words, there was no precedent set for encounters of that sort yet. You couldn't ask him to protect you like that.

Closing your eyes with a slow breath, you listened for them again. This time, you weren't trying to locate your would-be attackers, but sense for their presence. You mentally traced them to their approximate location, fleshing out the scene behind your eyelids and discovering there was a third camped out near the parking lot, and suddenly you could see their souls.

Maybe you could confuse them? Papyrus tried shaking you, but you grabbed his hand to hold him still and focused on replacing what they saw with something entirely different.

Your forest. Your lake. Your meadow.

You tried tracing out all 3 sights in rapid succession, focusing less on details and more impressing the general shapes into their souls. Your knees buckled, but Papyrus kept you upright, and the most satisfying sound followed-

They dropped to the sand.

Unfortunately, you realized you didn't know how long to maintain the overlapping images, and you unconsciously clutched his hand hard. You were being pulled along, blindly trusting that Papyrus had an idea what was happening. It felt like forever, barely aware of that quiet shuffling, before you could hear him.

“KITTY!”

“WHAT?!” You shouted, startled out of your trance-like state.

“YOU WEREN'T RESPONDING AT ALL,” Papyrus explained, “WE'RE RIGHT HERE. SHE'S OKAY.”

Here wasn't at the beach, or even the convertible, but inside the well-lit cafe you'd visited earlier. His last statement was directed at his phone, which was exploding with the cacophony of your friends all talking over each other.

“tell me where you're at bro,” Sans voice cut through the rest, the closest to the phone. It must've been his.

“THE WARBLER'S CAFE-”

It only took that part of the sentence for Sans to crack into existence outside the entrance. He had a funny expression for a moment, before shuffling in at a surprisingly quick pace. Accordingly, Papyrus's phone started with a staticky outburst before settling back into silence. The person behind the counter slowly poured a cup of tea and pushed it to you. You glanced to him and Sans, trying to determine whether an order was made.

“way to go ditching them papyrus,” he grinned at him, an adoring expression that was tinged with relief. You redirected your gaze to the tea.

“OF COURSE! THOUGH, I THINK MOST OF THE CREDIT IS DUE TO KITTY... SPEAKING OF, ARE YOU OKAY?”

You were staring dazedly at the design of the teacup, clouds painted on the black cup with the navy blue mouth. “Okay. I'm okay. Just, never did that before.” 

You drank, heedless of the heat emitting from the cup, and scorched your mouth thoroughly in the process. The pain restored your situational awareness.

“KITTY, YOU'RE SHAKING.” Papyrus observed worriedly.

“we've got to go back, are you going to remain present during the shortcut?” Sans asked. His eyelights were unusually dim, threatening to turn black. It didn't seem directed at you though, and you nodded. You were herded out of the cafe with little more prompting, before Sans took you both through his shortcut.

“O-oh thank the stars!” Alphys slumped the second she saw you and the brothers walk into the building. It was back at the exhibition hall, and there were police talking to Toriel and Asgore. 

“What is-” you started to ask trying to move towards the scene, but Undyne pushed you back firmly onto one of the chairs that was used to support the tape meant to keep fair-goers from touching the exhibits.

“Listen, Frisk's gone missing and we can't find Amber either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HA, LOOK WHO'S ON TIME THIS WEEK! Admittedly, I didn't get a chance to edit it too thoroughly, buuuuuuuuuuut it's on time and it has a decent word count, and lots happened! I'm a very happy camper right now!  
> So yeah, other than unintentionally sleeping through a couple of classes (and a test), I have very little to complain about this week. My classmate DID think I had a concussion though, which I'm pretty sure they've spent too much time working at the late night ER. Considering I don't have a single clue what to look for even if I did have a concussion, tell me your concussion stories if you have them! If not, well, welcome to the club- Population: Nilla.


	40. Preparation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath.

At this point you might've called the police. However, the police was already right there. You pulled your phone out, only to stare blankly at Undyne's hand over the surface. Gently, she told you, “That was the first thing we tried.”

So maybe your next step was to retrace your steps, except that Amber was missing from a busy fair and you hadn't seen her in a couple of hours and- 

“Fuck! Why didn't I look for her when she wasn't...” you murmured to yourself, hoarsely.

Your thoughts raced through the stage performance and your get-away from the ambush as you were getting back up and pushing past Undyne. “Punk, hey-!”

You were thinking of Amber, filled with a sense of dread, terror, and quickly coming from behind to swallow up the other two emotions, a tidal wave of anger much like the aftermath of your finals panic attack. They went after your best friend!

Undyne clamped a hand on your shoulder, “Look, I get what you want to do right now, but don't go alone.”

You swung to stare her down, ready to fight her. “I have to find Amber.”

“I get that, but we have to find Frisk too.” Undyne refused to be intimidated by your stare. You ground your heels in non-metaphorically, well aware that if Undyne saw anything less than resolution, you were never going to leave this place. Behind you, Papyrus and Alphys were watching and catching up with low murmurs.

Alphys told him. “We think they might still b-be somewhere around here, b-but...”

A long pause, as she looked down at her little claws, unable to stop twisting them with anxiety.

“... but... they're not answering their phone.”

They watched Undyne pull you further off to side. Papyrus noticed you had snapped out of that dazed haze from back on the beach, your eyes had been open but glassy, seeing somewhere beyond him and magic all but resounding with a low roar through the hand he was holding. Now, you were too awake, snapping back with a single-minded intensity, in a way that's clearly visible to Undyne by the way she maintained eye contact and a steady hold with the arm swung across your shoulders. 

“Listen, you're coming with me to look for them tonight. BUT-” she jabs a finger to your cheek, and you grimace at the unexpected pressure. “What I really need is for you not to rush off. The fact is, we narrowly avoided losing four people, but the night ain't over yet. You're not allowed to go anywhere alone, and neither is anyone else. You'll be bunking with Toriel tonight, understood?”

No one was found.

~

The instant you fell asleep, a long process marked by watching the numbers of the analog clock on the hotel desk ticking forward into the wee hours of the morning, you were up. Much the way you pulled Papyrus's soul into your dreams, you were trying to pull either of the other humans souls into your dream so you could demand to know where they were, or maybe somehow magically yank them through space into safety and security. You were already positive that the latter of the two options probably didn't work but that doesn't mean you weren't going to try to will them back however possible. Unfortunately, you still couldn't even find their souls, and you were cursing with frustration, and pacing furiously by the time Gaster had materialized into the fabric of your dream.

“Don't you think you should set a control before experimenting with distance summons?” He huffed, grabbing you by the shoulders and holding you in place. “You've studied science, correct? Calm down, and think.”

“A control?” You forced yourself still, feeling every muscle from your arms to your shoulders tense up as you crossed your arms. “Like what?”

“Try being able to sense out someone that's nearby and asleep. Then, you can try to sense someone who's nearby and awake. Then someone who's farther away and asleep. Do you see the progression that I'm suggesting?” Gaster told you, releasing your shoulders as you paced another worried circle and then settled down crosslegged into the flowers with a hiccuping sigh.

“Okay... so Toriel first... then someone awake...” you muttered, starting to shut Gaster out and immediately trying exactly that. You closed your eyes trying to see Toriel's soul like a beacon as a hand patted your shoulder briefly.

…  
…  
…

You'd been able to roughly size up Toriel's soul inside dreams of butterscotch-cinnamon and an empty house, shocked and intimidated by the apparent power that radiated it from it's presence and gently let it go before you could disturb her. Similarly, passing through dark corridors like walking through an inky starless sky, you were able to sense that Sans was still awake in the hotel room above. You had a quick uncomfortable moment as you discovered that he had only 1 HP. How was Papyrus's brother so fragile?

A flash of blue and yellow startled you mid-check, and you backed away with the distinct sense of an assessing gaze returning your check. 

Spooked and unsettled, yet moving on, you were able to see Asgore's soul illuminating the hotel briefly and managed to stumble out of the rooms fairly quickly. You checked passerby near the hotel by struggling past unseen obstacles and total darkness. You traced the presence of souls both awake and asleep up to the cafe, being able to drop in quickly by following the dreams of the manager inhabiting in the attic, and shakily following the dark outline of the cafe down to find Paint-Tail smoking outside the entrance. You could check people and monsters and even tell approximately where they were relative to your 'self' although it required you to feel around and guess by tracing lines of signs and other objects.

“You've learned to SURVEY.” Gaster's voice brought you back from the black environment of the waking world with a startled shriek and snapping your awareness back into the dream. Ignoring your baleful glare as you held a hand to your chest to soothe your rapid heart rate, he continued with grim satisfaction, “Your enemies may not find it so easy to sneak up on you now.”

“That's great, but I couldn't find them at all,” You clenched your hand, a dark thought flitting through your mind before you could stop it. “Where ARE they? Will we be even to find them here? Or if they're here...”

“Allow me to stop you right there,” Gaster quieted you firmly with a frown. “What limitations could you imagine based on your survey?”

“Non-living,” you uttered despondently, “I can't see beyond dreams and souls. It's so dark when people aren't asleep... I can't see a thing.”

“If someone wasn't dreaming perhaps, you'd have trouble finding them wouldn't you?” Gaster prompted. “What else did you notice?”

“I checked-”

Your conversation was abruptly interrupted with a thump and a stabbing pain in your head, waking you up completely and wrenching you from your dream world. Your vision was obscured by blurry tears and you sat up from your entangled ball on the floor.

“I need to get goddamn dream cell phone for that guy or something...” You grumbled resentfully, frustrated that you woke up in the middle of a serious conversation. “Fucking inconvenient.”

You sat up as you realized that Toriel was gone. A note was left on the table across from the beds, instructing you to stay in while she got breakfast. Childishly, you muttered, “Stop me.”

You stayed inside nonetheless, thinking about what could stop you from finding Amber and Frisk.

~

You carefully stirred chocolate flakes into cream, watching them intensely as they melted and Toriel poured batter into cake pans. Papyrus's birthday was today, and Toriel and Asgore had firmly insisted that the celebration continued as normally as possible. Your thoughts swirled chaotically, and so you were quiet during the process. Toriel put the pans in the oven, and checked to make sure you were doing okay before going to rest on her chair in the living room. 

Staring at the ganache thickening, you weren't sure exactly what you were thinking when you raised your hand over the double pot, and started funneling magic through the stove fire. It was much easier than the first time around, and you knew your HP was draining steadily as you maintained the light colored flame. The chocolate concoction that had turned darker as the chocolate melted into the cream suddenly turned lighter, and shifted hues subtly. 

A few minutes passing, and the hand you used to stir the ganache began trembling violently. With a small snapping sound the flames reverted back to a blue hue as your magic output suddenly ceased. You removed it from the heat and all but fell into a kitchen chair, the chair making a sharp unpleasant screech.Your head spun as Toriel came back in.

“My child, are you okay?!” She originally peered in but upon seeing you, she walked over with a brisk pace. “You're sweating so much, are you sick again?”

“I'm fine, just...” you saw how her gaze slowly panned towards the stove, her eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement. “...pushed myself a bit much?”

“Were you making monster food?” 

The tone she asked in was complex. You weren't sure what you were hearing, or how to interpret the clipped 'd' of food. It was like her voice failed her briefly.

In a small voice you've only heard from yourself when your parents were angry, you asked in response “Are you mad?”

“No... but what you did is dangerous. Let me see your HP.” she gingerly extracted your soul from you, and she winced as you slowly started fading out.

HP: 0.5 of 20

“Never do that again on your own,” she ordered sternly. With a sudden flash, your HP was suddenly restored in full, your light headed daze receding away almost as quickly. Gently, she helped you back to your feet, you looking at her with wide eyed admiration. “That being said... your magic gives the ganache a pleasant scent.”

Sure enough, the faint scent of lavender pervaded in the air. Worriedly, you asked, “Is it going to taste different?”

“No my child, it'll be fine. Magic doesn't flavor food in the way that one will expect. There won't be any conflict between the ganache and the cake.” She carefully thumbed a little of ganache from off the spoon and licked it off, washing her paws automatically after. “No flavor. Your magic... is quite unusual though. It doesn't restore health?”

“Give it a nap.”

~

The cake and icing was finished after Toriel woke up from a nap later, with three layers of cake with orange marmalade layered between them. The cake itself had a light angel's food cake fluffiness and ganache frosted over. More orange frosting spelled out “Happy Birthday Papyrus!”.

“smelling good.” Sans remarked as he shortcutted right into the living room. “did one of you light a candle or something? smells like flower- and not the kind you bake with.”

Ignoring the offhand observation, you responded with a question that's been nagging at you, “Is the cake gonna go through your shortcut okay?”

If Sans had the capability to frown, he might've, “what do you cake me for? Your confidence in my abilities truly frosts my soul.”

He left in blip with the cake encased in the cake display case the Toriel had dug up, and then came back still punning. You sighed with good natured exasperation as the two exchanged puns right before Sans stepped you both through the shortcut and back onto the hotel property. Your friends were all fairly subdued including Papyrus, and you offered a quiet smile to him before running up the hotel stairs to your old room just to remember his present was downstairs in Toriel's room. Before you turned back, something colorful caught your eye.

In front of yours and Amber's former hotel room, appeared to be a shiny piece of plastic? You stepped closer with puzzlement, wondering if you dropped a pen or something, just to see a puzzle piece. The second your shadow fell over it, the orange petals of an incomplete flower faded to white, and you picked the piece up to scrutinize it closely. You held it back out into the sunlight to see it reflecting the colors again, and you recognized the art with the fine hairs of the nape of your neck standing straight up.

It was one of the puzzle pieces from your milk puzzle. Someone was trying to intimidate you, maybe even taunt, by showing how close they've gotten. They were probably the same person or people that's taken Amber and Frisk and tried to take you and Papyrus. They were the people that made everyone sad, and scared, and worried. Your jaw clenching, and your stomach churning sickly, you pocketed the puzzle piece and schooled your expression into your best pokerface. Unfortunately for them, you weren't about to get scared.

You were about to get pissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd intended to write out the next chapter tonight, and get a double update out tonight, but that's not happening. I can't promise regular updates right now, honestly. Gotta focus, and I'll be sure to get a bunch written when I have time again.  
> The next chapter is Underswap, so if you're not into the bonus chapters, feel free to ignore it.


	41. Bonus Underswap: Nodus Tollens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So what now?

You stopped seeing him in your dreams about a week ago. A long week, of failed expectation and wondering where Papyrus had gone. You wanted to talk to someone, anyone, about the growing anxiety you were feeling, but how do you tell someone that you were worried about a skeleton you saw in a dream? Yet you couldn't keep it to yourself, the mental pressure after the entirety of that week was driving you crazy, making you tense and feeling your breath catch when you thought about it for too long.

“It's fucking dumb, I know.” You complained to the only person that you could trust not to sign you up for a therapist, choosing self deprecation to play it off. “How did I get attached to a mythological creature?!”

“Dunno, ask the supernatural romance section in the bookstore.” Amber was idly tinkering with a new camera she'd saved up for with birthday and holiday money, a reservoir you'd contributed to more than a couple of times. “Maybe you just got used to it so now it's weird.”

“Yeah, but...?” You groaned, headbutting the pillow you brought over to her house for the sleepover. Amber grabbed the small bowl of lemon chocolate flavored almonds and scooted it over as a sympathetic gesture. You surfaced and grabbed a handful, “There's a part of me that thinks that this might be a real person in trouble? That's pretty dumb right?”

“Do you remember the time we both had the same dream about adopting Lady at that new animal shelter across the street, and you were volunteering there even though we'd both never been inside that place?” Amber asked nonchalantly. “Then we woke up and I texted 'I had a dream and you were in it'. Which, then you said you did too, and it got us both to go there and then I adopted Lady in real life and you actually started volunteering there?”

“Yeah, okay maybe that was a little weird.” You let a breath out you weren't entirely aware of holding and chuckled, the tightness in your chest loosening. Lady was a hyperactive water loving mutt that looked a little like someone crossed a greyhound with a poodle or a terrier for the laughs. She was tagged as a labrador mix by the shelter since she had short black fur, but you highly doubted it.

“You mean practically psychic. Except maybe the part where we were still thinking there was gonna be like a meadow and lake in the back like some weird sunshiney dog paradise.” Amber revised. “So maybe not perfect psychic, but you still dream about that place right? Maybe there's something cool and magical about it. Hehe, maybe you're a witch!!!”

You put on a dramatic face and gasped, rolling away to throw a pillow at her head, “I'm a what?! How dare you good madam, I'll have you know I would NEVER call you such a thing even in jest! I'm hurt, I-I'm thunderstruck. And I think I need more candy to get over this egregious offense.”

“Get it yourself!”

You both laughed, you unable to keep in character at that and shoving your face in the pillow to muffle the intensity of your laughing, and a low click sounded to let you know she just took a picture. You peered out with your eyes dramatically narrowed once more. “How dare you.”

You were promptly blinded by the flash of the second picture.

~

It was another week before the news spread to where you lived. A mountain, monsters pouring out of it:

:Monsters that were wanting peace and friendship. 

You were glued to the news, Booptube videos, online articles, cafe television on the news channel, rumors and gossip, you couldn't get enough. It was maybe about five days before Amber brought up a video in an article you hadn't seen before.

“Is this him?” she asked simply, and pointed. Excited, you looked but it was a completely different skeleton standing next to the human ambassador, a kid with a green striped shirt and a skeleton barely taller than them with a blue bandana and what might've been an armor costume. The two looked engrossed in conversation, you recognized the kid even though they were a lot less scary in real life than they were in Papyrus's imagination.

“No,” you murmured, disappointed for a second. Then you looked more closely to the background and saw a familiar triangle of orange cut off by the edges of the picture. You grinned a little, “But it does make me feel better to see a skeleton monster. It might mean he's around somewhere.”

Almost like a scripted event in a game that was needed to progress, you finally, finally dreamed of Papyrus again. You'd nearly missed him, closing your eyes as soon as you were conscious to rest and pass through the dream in the fast forward blur that'd made up half of the month. There was a low brushing sound, the lavender letting you know someone was moving through the meadow.

“hey, kitty.”

Your eyes shot open immediately, and you sat up to stare hard at him. Papyrus looked exhausted, but intact, standing at a distance as if he thought he might be intruding. Almost sheepishly, he asked,

“would you like my number?”

You stood up, as calmly as you could with your heart thudding like a jackhammer, and brushed imaginary dirt off of your pajamas. Then, you walked over to him and hugged him tightly. 

“Where the hell have you been?” you grumbled as you felt his arms slowly reach around you and gently encircle you with a tired chuckle in your ear. “Also, yes.”

“just... really been worked to the bone.” For a second, you could feel his ribs hiccup against your chest as his voice choked for a second. When you pulled back to examine him more closely though, he was straight faced. There was only a small smile playing across his features to tell you anything about how he was feeling. “it's all worth it though. hey, did you know there's a holiday that humans and monsters both share but for different reasons?”

You both talked animatedly, a rush of information passing from one side to the other. The human ambassador certainly wasn't anything like Papyrus's nightmares, a tad uncertain and quiet, hesitant to laugh but hard to calm down once they got excited about something. They'd practically dragged the monsters along once given the job, determined to carve out a place in human society. That included Papyrus, as he ran a lot of the behind the scenes work like escorting groups of monsters up to the surface and being sure they'd adjusted to their new lives. He'd had more than a few calls in the middle of the night from monsters who were scared or lonely and missing the Underground, or just waking up from bad dreams and needing reassurance. It meant he usually didn't have more than about a half an hour of sleep at any given time, meaning that he never fell asleep at the right intervals or long enough for you to see him. His account was also giving you more insight as to how humans and monsters were really getting along since they'd come out of the Underground. In turn, Papyrus was intently soaking up what you'd learned. After awhile, the topic shifted closer to home and life.

“By the way, I thought I saw the sleeve of your hoodie in a photograph with the ambassador, Chara and another skeleton monster. Would it be wrong to assume that's your brother?” You asked curiously, after he'd talked about his brother at length.

He gave you a stern look, “kitty, that's really racist. not all skeletons are related.”

“Oh shoot, I'm sorry..!” You backtracked, cringing mentally at your foot in mouth syndrome before you could catch the upward twitch in Papyrus's expression. “I really didn't- hey you're teasing! Don't think I can't see you snickering!” 

You bumped your shoulder into his roughly and looked at Papyrus indignantly. He'd have bumped you back but you moved away quickly enough he fell over into your lap instead, and you crossed your arms as he just lay there chuckling. “nyeh heh heh, yeah, that's sans. he's pretty amazing, isn't he?” 

You could feel your scowl soften at his soft orange flush and carefree expression, and soon you two were just grinning at each other like a couple of idiots. “Yeah, he looks like a fun guy.”

The dream was melting away around you, forcing you to exchange resigned looks with him as his mouth was moving, “remember, my number is...”

“...” you mouthed digits to yourself as you'd blearily felt for your phone on the desk next to your bed and typed in the new contact number. You'd nearly put the phone back down after shooting a confirmation text to snooze again before seeing the time and jumping out of bed. “Shit, I'm late!!”

You and Papyrus began texting constantly after that, so much so that he'd accidentally sent texts meant for an Asgore that you'd been reluctant to think might've been the actual former king of monsters, and apparently sent texts to Asgore that was intended for you. Eventually, you'd gotten a text-

-hey my bro and his friends were gonna go to a con. is it where i think it is?

You sent back a sarcastic text before checking the link.

-Do you... not know where a place is? XP

-of course i know where it is, but i was confirming if you knew that I knew where it was, which is indeed where it is-

You decided to stop reading. Sometimes he would send rambling texts that didn't really mean anything except that he was hedging around an uncomfortable question or that he'd had a long day and managed to catch himself in some looping logic. The map was familiar though, and as you examined it more closely, you realized why.

-That's right next to my school. Are you coming too?

-yea

You texted back 'that's cool!' and waited a few minutes, before you quirked an eyebrow at the sudden stop in the flow of texts. Lazy or no, he was prompt in answering. You already had a good idea why though, and pocketed the phone with a sigh. He really needed to stop falling asleep at random.

The phone buzzed a few hours later.

-would you like to try meeting there?

You responded, with a little smirk on your lips,

-Geez, I thought you'd never ask.  
-No, seriously, did you just wake up or something?

A few seconds later,

-sure.

~

You got Amber to help you scheme a cosplay you were able to put together with the limited time that Papyrus forewarned you. There weren't a whole lot of options given that you wanted to remain recognizable in a crowd of humans, but Amber suddenly sent you a set of Amazin! links.

-Hey, you said he calls you Kitty?  
-Why not Mew Mew Kissy Cutie?”

It was as good a costume as any, and easily prepared in time, although you regretted ordering a costume with a short skirt. You wore white leggings underneath it just to be safe, a decision that was validated almost immediately on arrival-

“OH MY GOD IT'S ANOTHER MEW MEW KISSY CUTIE!”

-You heard only a few measly seconds before you were body-slammed with unexpected force and knocked to the ground by a yellow blur. The force of nature that you just experienced appeared to be a yellow dinosaur in an identical pink dress. It appears you attracted the wrong monster completely.

“MWEH HEH HEH, HUMAN I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, BUT YOU'VE JUST MADE YOURSELF A NEW BEST FRIEND!” A blue blur announced from above, and you rubbed the tears of pain from your eyes to see properly. The skeleton in blue stood above the two of you, looking like he was amused but sympathetic to your pain as he helped you up with the dinosaur that'd tackled you.

“I-I'm so sorry, I don't know my own strength sometimes, but it's just SO amazing to meet another fan!” the shorter but buff lizard in her respective Mew Mew costume squealed before stopping to ask. “What do you think of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2?!”

Still a little floored- oh geez, you just realized that was a pun- by meeting your first monsters in person, your response was made offhand, “I hadn't seen it, I just watched the first season of the series.”

“GOOD, DON'T!!! IT'S TRASH, JUST GARBAGE!”

Before you knew it, you found yourself being herded with these two monsters, introduced and numbers exchanged before you even had the chance to text Papyrus with 'I just met your bro'.

In fact, it was kinda funny to have seen Papyrus outside the building before he saw you, smoke wafting from his cigarette and glancing absentmindedly to his phone before walking away from another monster. You tapped Alphys mid-rant, “Hey, I need to leave for a little bit, I was planning on meeting someone here and I think I just saw them.”

“O-oh! But you're not just ditching us, right?” Menacingly she leaned in, intimidating you. For someone shorter than you, she packed one of hell of a body tackle. “Because we WILL find you and then talk recs. Plus I want my girlfriend to see your costume! She'll flip, anime totally is real!”

“No, of course not! I just saw him walking off, so I want to surprise him.” You explained, and both of the monsters grinned.

“OH, A JAPE! TELL ME HOW IT GOES!” Sans responds cheerfully, before the two of them waves and go their separate way. You grin, and step outside, holding the door open for the fish monster he'd been talking to before following his path. You didn't see exactly where he went, but it was easy enough to follow the faint scent of tobacco as you walked around the building until you came to the back of it. There was an open field with a line of trees across the way, if there was any way for the skeleton to blend in it would be there especially given the browning foliage in the crisp fall air. In fact, the wind blowing was almost too cold for you to be wearing the cosplay, and you hoped to find him before the weather cooled down too much.

Stepping as stealthily as you could from the sidewalk and into the trees, you scanned the area for Papyrus. It was clear he wasn't in the middle of it, in any case, but you could've sworn you could still smell tobacco in the air. You passed a thick branch, nudging it with your boot briefly before glancing around again. The wind was picking up, your skin prickling. You continued a few steps before you heard a loud snapping noise, making you whirl around with in surprise.

The branch you crossed was broken, snapped quite deliberately in the middle of it. 

You stepped back a few steps, eyes wide, and feeling your adrenaline pick up. Maybe you should just text Papyrus, especially as you'd just noticed that there wasn't anyone else around here. You step back into something solid, and a couple of hands grab your shoulders.

“boo.”

You jumped in place, but made a face as you looked up. “Damn, you caught me before I caught you.”

“nyeh heh heh, hard to blend in when you're wearing a pink cat costume.” Papyrus tugged the fake cat ears briefly, grinning with amusement. “nice touch, kitty.”

You turned around to whap him on the forehead and then hug him, “Is it weird that this feels a lot less like we're really meeting for the first time and more like we're just hanging out almost like we do it every day?”

“well, we hang out every night.”

Striking up a conversation, it's not long before the cool weather picks up enough for Papyrus to notice you begin shivering. “oh shoot human. you're chilled to the bone, here-” He pulls off his pullover hoodie and offers it to you. 

“Are you sure? I'll warm up once we're back inside.” You pull it on gratefully anyways. There was a few sticky spots crystallized into the fabric here and there, but the hoodie had a smell of sweat and some sort of sweetness to it.

Once you entered the building, it wasn't long before the two of you were spotted. “PAPYRUS, THERE YOU ARE, YOU LAZYBONES! WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!”

“sorry bro, i was just meeting kitty here.”

You waved sheepishly. “Sorry Sans, I kinda knew who you were before you introduced yourself.”

Sans's smile took a surprisingly sly quality, given that it seemed fixed in place. “I MUST CONFESS HUMAN, I KNEW WHO YOU WERE TOO, ONCE YOU SAID YOU WERE MEETING SOMEONE. SO TELL ME HUMAN, DID YOU SURPRISE MY BROTHER?”

Your jaw dropped, “Wait, are you telling me that you were both in on it?! No fair!!!”

Both brothers laughed at your dismay as Alphys and the fish monster look between the three of you. The fish lady asked “That's the person you were talking about Alphys? I saw her earlier!”

She was tall and skinny, but she was dressed in the black kimono with a side-strapped sword that resembled a popular anime's cat lady. She had a black butterfly painted over one eye, making you admire the attention to detail involved. “I remember that episode, it's funny how that mark her apprentice leaves can be really pretty but deadly too if she hits it again.”

“There needs to be so much more anime like this,” the fish monster gushed. “More flowery swords-women and action!”

She got fired up in her own world for a few seconds, although she came back to earth soon enough to get embarrassed and retreat back into her shell, her blush nearly matching her hair in intensity. An arm wrapped around your shoulders, and you glanced up to see Papyrus looking straight ahead with a relaxed expression as if he didn't just jape you with his brother, give you his hoodie so you'd stay warm in your now covered up costume, and just had the guts so to speak to hang an arm across your shoulders.

You'd visited a few exhibits with them, buying merchandise here and there, almost losing it completely when Alphys and Undyne discovered a vendor selling replica weaponry and Alphys nearly knocked over an entirely unrelated stand with a pair of nunchuks. With Papyrus's hoodie on, you'd warmed back up, but you felt warmth in your chest too. The convention was turning out to be a lot of fun and you couldn't bring yourself to regret neglecting your studies for a day. 

“Howdy!” a deep voice boomed, easily being heard over the crowds, as Papyrus lit up in response. 

“feel ready to meet the ex-king of all monsters?” he asked, nudging you as you pale a little.

“I don't know?”

“nyeh heh heh, relax king fluffybuns is a big ole fuzzy pushover. i bet if you just went up to him and asked real nice 'hey mr. dreemurr can i have your autograph?' he'd just melt right there.”

You stuck out your tongue at him in response, just as the ginormous monster approached with the human ambassador in tow. Despite his size, he looked friendly and unintimidating just as Papyrus said. He gave you a curious look, and asked with a low chuckle, “Oh dear, is he already getting your goat?”

“All day with it- wait.” You squinted at the goat monster, having a distinct feeling that you were being teased again. “Did you just pun?”

Sans gave a loud groan of disgruntlement, “THEY DO THIS EVERY TIME. EVERY. TIME.”

You noticed that the kid ambassador, Chara, was staring hard at you. You weren't entirely sure what merited such close scrutiny, but next thing you knew Chara had pushed themselves between you and Papyrus, forcing him to let go of your shoulders. 

“Chara!” Asgore scolded, “That's rude.”

You looked to Papyrus questioningly, as he nervously smiled back, sweating a little. “hi to you too, kiddo.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I'm alive, if only barely! I'm not certain about my update schedule yet as Finals approaches, but I finished up one of my classes about a week ago, so that seems to have helped a lot. Hopefully, the length of this makes up a little bit for how long I took to update! I think there'll be one more of Underswap after about 4 chapters, so look forward to it!


	42. Sweet Birthday Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even dreams can turn out to be one hell of a party.

Why your magic had the side effect of putting everyone to sleep including you, you didn't know, but it wasn't long after distributing the cake that everyone started dropped from the waking world and straight into their respective dreams. You sat up in the middle of the lavender field with the rich taste of oranges and chocolate in your mouth, lavender brushing against your bare arms. You blinking rapidly at the unexpected sight of Papyrus passed out in your lap, and then looked around for Gaster, your heartrate accelerating. Sans would probably be upset with you if the two met but... if Gaster was their brother... then why? Your thoughts screeched to a halt suddenly, as your gaze fell upon something unusual.

Your dream was perforated by multiple sudden gaps in space, blurry around the edges but leading into new areas you've never seen in the meadow. Some portals led to the inside of houses, people's rooms or a lab in one case. Other places didn't look quite like your meadow and forest but led into snowy dark woods or what appeared to be a cave filled with glowing mushrooms and the sounds of running water. You stroked Papyrus's skull without thinking, trying to understand what was happening.

“Did I do this?” You murmured, stunned.

Papyrus stirred, and you tore your attention away from the portals to look around more frantically for Gaster. You couldn't see him in the meadow, the trees, or near the lake and you nearly sighed with relief, but then both your hands clasped gently by Papyrus.

“WOWIE, IT LOOKS LIKE I'M EVEN DREAMING ABOUT YOU NOW! ALTHOUGH, I DON'T RECALL WHAT HAPPENED TO MAKE ME GO TO SLEEP.” Papyrus mused, pressing both your hands to his cheekbones as he stared up at you thoughtfully.

“What makes you think you're asleep?” You stuck your tongue out. “For all you know, we suddenly teleported to a different dimension, never to return to our original world!”

“REALLY?! DID UNDYNE COME TOO?” he smiled enthusiastically and sat up, looking around him curiously. You couldn't help but laugh at the response.

“Probably not?” You gave the portals another sidelong glance.

“YOU CRAZY PUNK!” Undyne yelled as she suddenly appeared within the portal with glowing mushrooms, her appearance shifting strangely like light refracting through water as she stepped through. You should've known the second you said anything like that, someone would show up to prove you wrong. 

With a resigned sigh, you said out loud “Hey Und-OOF!”

With a run that kicked up lavender and grass and a hardcore tackle, you were thrown across the meadow grass with Undyne giving you a noogie and Papyrus hovering somewhat anxiously. “H-HEY DON'T NOOGIE KITTY!!!”

“No seriously, what did you do?! Spike the birthday cake with healing magic?” Undyne demanded excitedly. “You DID, didn't you?!”

“Just the ganache?” You suggested weakly, feeling a little sore on the head after she ruffled your hair with her fist. “Hold up, I need to SURVEY everyone.”

“SURVEY?” Papyrus asked, puzzled. Undyne gave you one more rib cracking squeeze before letting you go.

“Have at it, but when you get back, you HAVE to tell me what that is and how you're training!”

You nodded, and then slipped into your SURVEY mode. Souls glimmered at their brightest, Papyrus's soul being the most immediately recognizable but in the surface world all of your friend's souls were not only fairly intact, but their HP were rising at a steady rate. Even Sans's 1 HP soul increased, although at a grudging rate. You frowned to yourself, and muttered “Don't be so stubborn...” as if the progress was a voluntary thing.

You felt your way past their souls and eventually found the door, otherwise blind in the darkness of the real world. You could see only a few other souls near the party rental room. They were not advancing towards the room or showing any interest in approaching. Satisfied, you allowed yourself to fall through the room, blinking hard so that you were seeing the light illuminating the meadow and your friends.

“O-oh, you're b-back!” Alphys stuttered, and you startled. The little lizard was sitting by you, her tail swishing through the grass as she adjusted to get more comfortable.

“Alphys! You're in the meadow too, now?” You asked, and she fiddled with the lavender flowers beside you sheepishly.

“I thought I r-recognized this p-place through the my own d-dream. B-but, it's really strange to be able to v-visit voluntarily! Have you b-been working o-overtime on your training?”

“I sometimes work on it in my sleep, but my progress is really haphazard.” You frowned. “I only just learned how to SURVEY which I guess is kinda like... spirit projection?”

“I k-know I visited here before, b-but why are there so many open p-places?” Alphys asked, looking around to the open portals. You thought for a moment.

“This is new to me too, but maybe... it's everyone's dreams that my magic is working on?” You speculated. With your friends coming into your dream from their own, you didn't doubt it'd be long before someone new showed up. You could hear Undyne explaining to Papyrus what was going on, but you were preoccupied with trying to figure where Gaster went. Maybe he somewhere else during the daytime? 

“... hey buddy, i gotta ask, what's the big idea?” Sans grumbled groggily, as he stumbled from the portal with the glowing blue mushrooms. “i like taking naps as much as the next guy, but we were celebrating something.”

“...” You opened your mouth, then promptly closed it again as you pulled anxiously at your shirt collar. Finally you mumble, “Check your HP.”

Sans didn't react outwardly, but stared hard at you.

“It's just a safety measure, Sans.” Toriel's voice rang out, the goat monster stepping past another dream portal a few moments later. “We'll be awake in a few moments, and continue the party.”

“tori...” Sans sighed, still disgruntled.

“Has Asgore showed up yet?” Alphys asked, looking around expectantly with most people present.

“Ufufufu! The big dork's probably just started gardening in his dream or something, I'll go get him.” Undyne charged into one of the spaces before you can stop her.

“WOWIE, SO THIS IS WHAT YOU DREAM ABOUT... WAIT, DOES THIS MEAN YOU DON'T DREAM ABOUT ME?” Papyrus asked you. You flashed back to the previous time he showed up in your dream.

“I do!.. More often than you think, Puppy.” You mumbled, and nearly succeeded in hiding your face in your shirt before being swept up into a tight hug by him.

“REALLY?! ME TOO! SOMETIMES I DREAM ABOUT US MAKING SPAGHETTI TOGETHER WHICH IS VERY ROMANTIC! AND SOMETIMES I HAVE DREAMS KINDA LIKE THESE, BUT THERE'S SOMEONE ELSE HERE? SO THAT'S NOT VERY ROMANTIC-” 

You waved your hands defensively at Sans's dark look, unable to defend yourself while Alphys looked between the two of you oddly.

“By the way, can you do other stuff here too?” Alphys asked, making the decision to change the subject and possibly save you from an awkward explanation. Though, you suspected it'd only be until he could catch you alone.

“Like what?” Papyrus put you down, letting you hold his hands for support as you wobbled.

Alphys looked both excited and nervous, fiddling with the lavender in her claws until the stem snapped. “AH! I-I mean, can you... change form? L-like in anime?”

“Oh!” You suddenly remember when you showed up as a cat. “Yeah, but I don't know how I did it...”

For a second, it looked like she might short out with excitement. “P-PLEASETELLMEYOUCANTURNINTOMEWMEWKISSYCUTIE?!!”

You just blink at the unexpected blast of words, and slowly responded as you translated her words in your head, “Nnnooo? I don't think so? But, maybe an actual cat?”

You thought very hard about becoming a cat like in a dream before. Nothing happened.

“Well, guess not?” You laughed it off with a careless shrug. 

“DON'T GIVE UP! YOU JUST LACK DISCIPLINE!” Papyrus scolded you. “YOU HAVE TO FEEL YOUR MAGIC GATHER, REMEMBER?”

“Alphys dear correct me if I'm wrong, but if we're in a place constructed by magic like this, then that may be easier said than done.” Mettaton interjected, stepping into your dream with an unimpressed look at the nature around him.

“A-also maintaining healing magic, and c-connecting us like this might interfere with magic function.” Alphys said thoughtfully. “B-by the way, we should b-be able to wake up soon, right?”

Asgore's presence suddenly registered before you saw him flying, panic written all over his face before he landed on the ground right in front of Alphys who squeaked and jumped back.

“FUHUHUHU!! I HAVEN'T LOST MY TOUCH!” Undyne cheered, rolling her shoulders as she stepped out of Asgore's dream triumphantly. Asgore for the most part stood back up with unexpected grace for someone who'd been tossed across the fabric of dreams. “I CAN STILL THROW YOU ACROSS THE ROOM!!!”

“Well, you've certainly never made me regret putting you in charge of the Royal Guard.” he smiled, scratching his head and taking in his surroundings. “Howdy, everyone! Erm, where are we now?”

“We're sharing K-kitty's dream.” Alphys told him, but you weren't listening anymore, your attention fixated on Sans. At first it seemed like he was unusually silent, but he was gazing beyond everyone to the forest. Your eyes followed the path of his gaze and there you saw Gaster hovering uncertainly between the trees.

“WHERE ARE YOU LOO-” Papyrus started to ask, following your own gaze, and you turned quickly in a sudden panic and tackled him into the flowers with a hard smooch to his teeth that bruised your mouth. You heard wolf whistling and Toriel giggling. He let out a startled cry,cheekbones flushed, “N-N-NYEHHH! I'VE BEEN ATTACKED IN A FIT OF PASSION!! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS IRRESISTIBLE, BUT YOU MUST EXHIBIT SOME SELF RESTRAINT AROUND OUR FRIENDS!”

“Hehe, I just realized that I haven't given you a birthday kiss or anything.” You managed to unhug him and sat up from on top of him. From the corner of your vision, it seemed that Sans wasn't in the same place as he was meaning that you've successfully distracted everyone from Gaster and Sans. Good.

“What are you waiting for, Papyrus? Smooch her back!” Mettaton egged him on. You looked back to Papyrus's blush growing brighter and you climbed off so he could sit up properly.

“Oh, that's not necessary!” You tried to wave the situation off. “It's your birthday after all, do what you want.”

Papyrus sits to grab your waving hands, “THEN I WANT TO HOLD HANDS! AND MAYBE GO ON A DATE SOON?”

“Really?” You asked before you realized that was a dumb question given that you were now together. “I-I mean, yeah!”

“Darlings, you both are so awkward it's charming.” Mettaton shook his head. 

“I-I think it's k-kind of sweet...” Alphys swooned, leaning into Undyne. “D-did you already have a p-place in mind?! Maybe on a picnic, o-oh maybe you can go on a picnic here? Oh b-but it'd be a little strange to eat in a d-dream... oh and how will you exchange gifts to raise each o-others affection stats b-before the date?! And maybe Undyne and I c-could go on a d-double d-d-date with you when you're a-awake instead so nothing too crazy happens-”

“ERM, I WAS JUST THINKING OF HAVING OUR DATE AT ONE OF OUR FAVORITE PLACES...” Papyrus said nervously. You nodded in agreement, thinking of the madness that was Undyne and Papyrus in the same space.

Suddenly, your awareness shifted so that your sense of the dream slipped as if you were falling and before you knew it, you were waking up from the table. Like clockwork, everyone began sitting up and rubbing their eyes. 

“Continuing the conversation from before, I agree with Alphys, we're your gals if you want to double date!” Undyne said after a huge toothy yawn. “Unless you're telling me you two just want aloooone time!”

She emphasized the 'oh' teasingly, and you only managed to meet Papyrus's eyes for a few seconds before you felt your cheeks heat up and you looked away quickly. Your heart rate continued beating at an accelerated rate as Undyne cackled.

“FUHUHUHU THAT'S TOTALLY IT ISN'T IT?! PUPPY AND KITTY SITTING IN A TREE, K-I-S-S-I-”

“i think it's best we move on to the present.” Sans interjected, holding a present to emphasize the pun, and handing it to Papyrus. You realized that Papyrus began holding your hand from the moment he woke up when he grabbed the present using his non-dominant hand and nearly dropped the package. You scooted closer to lean against him, only to see Amber's present uncovered by the pile. You weren't sure you could take the way your heart alternated between beating faster or squeezing tight inside your chest much longer.

~

“I HAVE TO SAY, IT FEELS REALLY STRANGE HAVING A PARTY WITHOUT FRISK...” Papyrus mumbled to you much later, when you and he were lounging on your hotel bed alone. You were playing chess with him, idly playing with a discarded rook that you'd sacrificed early on in the game to take out his bishop.

“I want Amber back.” You responded quietly.

“SO YOU FEEL THE SAME THEN...” Papyrus squeezed your hand. He'd managed to get away with not letting go for the entirety of the day and it even became a bit of a joke for you both to cooperate unwrapping his presents. “LET'S TRAIN TOGETHER. LIKE WE SHOULD HAVE DONE FROM THE VERY START.”

“Right now?” You asked, still partially focused on working around his rooks and taking out the queen piece with minimal loss from your ranks. You glanced up to see his eyes locked onto yours, nothing but sincerity and determination in his expression. He was serious.

“YES. WE'RE GETTING THEM BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pappy Holidays everybody!!! I know it's been ages since I've updated but I'm planning on updating on a slightly slower schedule before picking everything back up to where I started. I know this seems like it might be a little short but essentially, I just want to make sure that I can get back into the swing of the story. I managed to get most of the hardest classes of my school career done, even if the results are lackluster, so I'm inching my way to graduation now! Since it's X-mas, what all did you get? My mom gave me a thermos with a tea strainer attached so now I can replace my blood with tea haha. Plus candy! So, I know I've asked for your favorite chocolate, your favorite drink, and good stuff like that. So, what's your favorite holiday food? I like tamales!


	43. Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get discouraged with waking world magic, but you can't give up!

“H-HEY GO AT SLOWER PACE, OR YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF!” Papyrus warned.

“I don't know how to control my magic output though.” you responded, sweat beading on your forehead as you struggled to maintain the shield on your arm for longer than thirty minutes. You were both going slowly at first, trying to practice a series of normal bone attacks for a warm up. He projected bones at a slow rate independent of the natural path of gravity and you used the shield to block them. “This doesn't feel natural to me at all.”

“HERE, DON'T JUST HIDE BEHIND IT THE SHIELD, BUT USE IT TO FACE DANGER HEAD ON! THAT'S HOW UNDYNE TEACHES ANYWAYS!” Papyrus moved to your side of the room to adjust your stance. It wasn't exactly fun to have him guiding your position as you were tiring quickly maintaining the magic. “TRY DEFLECTING MY ATTACKS AND MOVE IN CLOSE! GET CLOSE ENOUGH AND MAYBE I CAN TEACH YOU MY SPECIAL ATTACK! *audible wink*”

“Okay, that'd be good 'cuz I don't actually know any real attacks yet.” You squared your shoulders in preparation for the next barrage of bones, while Papyrus looked somewhat taken aback.

“THE AUDIBLE WINK WAS SUPPOSED TO MEAN A FLIRT, BUT I GUESS I COULD REALLY SHOW YOU MY SPECIAL ATTACK!” he mused, taking his stance on the other side of the room. You blinked and laughed sheepishly.

“Oops, I guess I missed what you meant!” You responded somewhat sheepishly and rolled your shield arm. You could feel sweat beading and dripping past your forehead, and breathing more heavily as you struggled to maintain the flow of magic in the shield. You could feel your pulse through your hand gripping the handle. “Let's get through this quickly.”

“OKAY BUT REMEMBER, YOU HAVE TO ADVANCE TO GET ANYWHERE! ONLY STOP MOVING IF YOU HAVE TO!” Papyrus reinforced his point with a barrage of blue bones. You knew from watching Undyne freeze in place that they'd pass through you harmlessly if you held still, but Papyrus wanted you to reflect the attack.

The first attack came spinning towards you from an angle you didn't trust and you briefly ducked close behind the crystalline construct, wincing as you stepped forward and watched the bone get much too close to your face before the force struck your shoulder and bounced off. You tried channeling your inner anime protagonist, picturing that you were braver than you felt, and stood up straight to meet the next attack. Then your instincts screamed at you to take cover and you cringed back, only managing to pull your arm up to block the attack. The bone bounced off at an odd angle overhead and you stepped forward to avoid it bouncing right onto your head.

You could barely hold your arm up now, as if the shield weighed a thousand pounds, except it really weighed nothing at all. It was in your arm itself that the tremors began, compromising your control over the way you angled the shield. The next couple of bone attacks thunked and spun away in completely random directions, and you started leaning in against the shield supported by your shoulder instead.

“BLUE STOP SIGN!” Papyrus shouted suddenly, and you froze up so the bone constructs slipped past you harmlessly. The battlefield faded off, and Papyrus was walking over to your side again, readjusting your stance as well as examining your arm and the way your magic was starting to stutter. “OKAY MAYBE YOU SHOULD STOP HOLDING THIS. MAYBE WE NEED TO REEVALUATE THIS STYLE OF SHIELDING SOON.”

You sighed in relief, and ceased the projection completely, sitting down on the bed. “Ugh, I feel like I held a rock over my head for an hour or did a bunch of plank exercises.”

Papyrus sat behind you and put his gloved hands underneath your trembling arm and squeezed it from your shoulder down. “YOUR DELTOID TO YOUR BICEP AND TRICEP MUSCLES ARE FINE, BUT YOU'VE BEEN CLENCHING YOUR EXTENSOR MUSCLES REALLY HARD! WHY ARE YOU MAKING SUCH A TIGHT FIST WHEN YOU'RE USING MAGIC?”

“It's reflex- wait, did you just name specific muscles?” You asked, nudging him with your shoulder. He let go of your arm to straighten up, ribs brushing your back, and declare:

“YOU DID TRY VERY HARD TO TEACH ME THAT ONE NIGHT! WHAT KIND OF STUDENT WOULD THE GREAT PAPYRUS BE IF HE DIDN'T LEARN EVERYTHING BY HEART!” He boasted. “BUT DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT! TRY AGAIN BUT WITHOUT STRAINING YOURSELF.”

He laced his phalanges between your fingers, his palm to the back of your hand so it was harder to flex properly. When you tried focusing on producing the shield again, your thoughts strayed to his hand twined through yours and before you knew it, you summoned his soul into your hands by accident again. “Ack!! Sorry, sorry!”

“KITTY!!!” Papyrus yelped in surprise and exasperation. 

You defended yourself, “Hey, it's hard to focus on that when you're this close!”

You let his soul go, and then Papyrus let go of your hand to hold his mandible thoughtfully and rest another hand on his hip. He recalled when you'd pulled his soul out of his body in your sleep too. Was your magic conditional on your “IS THAT EASIER FOR YOU THAN THE SHIELD?”

“Lots easier.” You nodded emphatically, carefully not to accidentally headbutt his jaw.

“WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOU MADE MY CAKE?” When you glanced up, he looked like how he was when he was trying to solve a puzzle, his eyes averted to the side and his brow furrowed.

“That was kinda easy, but once my HP dropped I couldn't stay standing for very long.” You explained. Almost immediately, you felt his magic coax your soul out, its pale purple surface shimmering for a moment as he cupped your soul and you felt your heart skip a beat in response. “Toriel healed me. There shouldn't be any damage left.”

“PULL OUT MY SOUL AGAIN.” Papyrus ordered, a funny inflection in his tone. Concerned, you followed the order, his orange soul now hovering before your hands once more. You could feel his gaze over your shoulder, both of you gingerly holding your souls away from the other, not totally certain what the effect would be if they were to touch. He sounded dismayed, “I GOT EXTRA HP, BUT YOU DIDN'T? AND AT A COST TOO...”

“Puppy...” You were afraid he might ask you to stop. “I'll be okay. But this is the only way I can really help anyone. Otherwise I'd just be a liability.”

“YOU'RE NOT A LIABILITY, YOU'RE MY GIRLFRIEND!” He protested heatedly, and at that mention you buried your head in your shirt collar. “YOU'RE NOTHING BUT GREAT AND COOL AND EVERYTHING YOU DO IS AMAZING! MORE THAN THAT EVEN!”

He pulled a glove off and held his bare bones to your soul, stroking firmly. A sudden rush of emotion hit you like a freight train, Papyrus's adoration and indignation flooding in at once, leaving you feeling overwhelmed. Speechless, you were unable to completely process this new unshakable feeling of faith in yourself.

“YOU UNDERSTAND NOW, RIGHT?” he demanded. “IF YOU CAN MAKE SOMEONE AS GREAT AS I FEEL THIS WAY, THERE'S GOT TO BE PLENTY OF REASONS FOR YOU TO BELIEVE IN YOURSELF TOO!”

You swallowed thickly, and nodded, not quite trusting yourself to speak. Instead, you enclosed your hands over his soul, and simply squeezed. He stopped in his tracks and nodded, your intention to allow your feelings to trickle through without words. “GOOD.” 

He continued rubbing soothing circles into your soul until you relaxed completely, sinking into him. In a few moments, both of your souls disappeared from sight, leaving both of you with an unusually strong sense of the bond you'd formed over the time you'd spent together. You put your hands in your pocket, and shifted to get more comfortable, thinking about maybe reading a story with him when your fingertips brushed cardboard at the bottom of your pocket.

Realization what it was made you straighten up, and startle Papyrus. “Oh! I think I've got an idea!”

~

You inserted the card into the hotel room, with one hand in your pocket feeling the puzzle piece. Since Amber and Frisk had only gone missing recently, you still had the room key just in case they showed up. At the back of your mind, you were nursing some small hope that you'd missed something when you found that piece in front of the room you shared with Amber since you hadn't actually gone inside, but another part of you was scared to find out if the room was broken into. You decided that it was best you remained on alert and insecure than remain blissfully ignorant and in danger, and turned the handle.

The room looked untouched since you'd moved yours and Amber's stuff into Toriel's hotel room, and Papyrus stepped around you and shut the door. He told you confidently, “LET'S LOOK AROUND! IF THERE ARE CLUES, THEN WE'LL BE ABLE TO FIND THEM EASILY!”

“Okay, it might not be as easy to find but there is one thing I found around here that shouldn't be here.” You showed him the milk puzzle piece. “This was from my room back home, I didn't bring my puzzle with me here, but I know it's mine.”

“OH, A PUZZLE PIECE? I DIDN'T KNOW YOU ENJOYED JIGSAWS! YOU ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE DAYDREAMING WHEN YOU PLAY WITH THEM.” Papyrus commented, studying the piece. “ERM, BUT THERE'S NO COLORS ON IT... HOW CAN YOU TELL IT'S YOURS?”

“It's a milk puzzle, so normally they're white but I painted on this one with a special kind of pigment that only shows up under a certain kind of light.” You explained. “Whoever has it might not even know what's on it.”

You never seen Papyrus light up so fast, even when he opened the handmade cookbook that Amber helped you finish on time. “WOWIE!! YOU PAINTED A PUZZLE ON A PUZZLE?!”

“Yeah, kind of...” You were reluctant to mention you only did it to hide your feelings that you were now free to express. It seemed kind of ridiculous in the aftermath of the last couple of days. “D-did you want me to make you one?”

“YES PLEASE!!!” Papyrus hugged you hard. “BUT LET'S FIND MORE PUZZLE PIECES FIRST SO YOU CAN COMPLETE YOUR PUZZLE AGAIN!”

Well, it really wasn't about that, but if you could find pieces inside the room, it was definitely a start. Carefully you glanced down and around the floor before stepping forward and began checking the beds and the sheets on them. Unfortunately, it seemed that room service had been in here, judging by the neatly made sheets where you and Amber had previously mussed from the night before last. This meant that there was a very good chance that they'd gotten rid of something they shouldn't. How frustrating.

You checked the ground around you, and underneath the beds but it seemed that this style of bed had some sort of support like a wooden block and prevented you from investigating too far under the bed. You could take it to mean that at least you didn't leave a sock or something larger under the beds by accident, but you needed something thinner to make sure paper or a puzzle piece wasn't shoved under. You took out a pen from your pocket, and began poking around the perimeter.

Papyrus had been investigating the cabinets, but had no luck. They were all perfectly empty and perfectly clean. He reported, glancing down to see you on your knees, butt in the air. “THERE'S NOTHING HERE.”

He gave a slight cough, trying not to get distracted. An investigation is no time to be appreciating the flare of your hips or the smooth curve of your spine or-

“There's nothing underneath here, they've done a pretty good job designing these beds so you don't lose stuff.” You straightened up, clicking the pen you'd been holding. “I didn't even scrape up loose scraps of paper from when I was making your cookbook.”

“O-OH, WELL THAT'S GOOD TO KNOW!” Papyrus jumped, as he snapped out of it. You stood up and began systematically shaking blankets off one of the beds.

“Let's check the bathroom and sink, but I don't think we're going to find anything.” You sighed.

~

It was getting late in the night for you both to be awake and together you decided to go to sleep and prepare for checkouts tomorrow. Returning to the hotel room with Toriel, you caught her staring at a letter, and you quietly watched her. “Don't tell me that's..?”

Toriel jumped. “Oh! My child, I did not see you there. No, no it is not anything like a ransom note. It seems that the town had heard of our trouble and is doing their best to help.” 

She gestured to a letter in a more formal envelope. “However, this letter is an individual here inviting to house a guest or two in their shop until Frisk and Amber are found. It is very kind of them...”

She fell silent for the moment. You sat beside her, and read the letter silently. It was written on a background with a familiar bird drawing. “So we're not all staying here?”

Toriel shook her head, “No my child, I think it best if everyone got to go home. The entire town will be keeping an eye out, and I myself will be searching. Furthermore, your parents will be worried.” 

True to her words, you were certain that you couldn't get away too long with just a few texts every day. You needed to be home for a few days before you could go back to living in Alphys's apartment and trying to save your friends. “Okay.” 

“May I keep a couple of slices of cake?” Toriel asked, as you were climbing under the sheets. “I think Frisk would enjoy it.” 

You nodded sleepily, harboring suspicions that Toriel might do more than simply search for her child. You squirmed in the warming cocoon though, focused more on falling into your dreams where you were at your strongest. “Stay safe too, okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year's everyone!!! I managed to get this done just a little early just for you! <3 It's definitely been a crazy year, but I gotta tell you that I love and appreciate every one of you! Your support has extended this story long beyond what I've expected! Have a good night, be sure you drink lots of water and take a vitamin before going to bed if you're drinking, and let's take on the next year with DETERMINATION!!


	44. The Core of the Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally learn a little more about Gaster. And yet still more questions remain.

Your awareness told you that you were falling, sluggishly responding to the tilted way you slipped into the dream. You felt like Alice tumbling into the rabbit's hole for some reason, unable to right yourself in the drunken dream world before you finally hit the surface.

 

“Bleh!”

 

Sinking unexpectedly and flailing in the water, you accidentally went under for a few moments as you regained your composure and propelled yourself in the direction of gravity. You broke out into the cool breeze and shook your head to fight your hair clinging to your face. You fell in the lake in your dream this time. Lovely. Pushing back locks of hair that refused to move from your face, you looked down through the surface of the water, not quite able to discern any bottom to the lake. Instead, you were staring down into a galaxy, the glittering pinpricks of light in the darkness stealing your breath with a sense of vertigo like you could fall through at any moment. Spooked, you swam to the edge of the lake to where you could catch your breath.

 

A hand patted your hand and you looked behind you, seeing only the meadow bordered by trees and mountains. You made a face, grumbling “C'mon Gaster, I know that's you, you're the only one that visits me nightly.”

 

“That may be true, but could you perhaps make such a decision now? As you open yourself to more visitors, you may find that I am not the only one capable of arriving here at will.” Gaster swirls into existence beside you, looming. You climb to your feet, shaking off water as best as you can.

 

“So it's not just me that's doing all of this, then?” You asked, a little confused at what he said.

 

“Oh no, that is you and only you. However, there's a certain amount of... back and forth. Do you see it yet?” Gaster guided your gaze to your surroundings. It seemed fairly normal, not punctured by the portals into other dreams, but you got the impression there was something more to it than simply seeing it. You were aware of a certain thrumming beneath your fingertips, and as you blinked, you could feel a pulse behind your eyelids. The entrances into the other dreams was almost certainly still present.

 

You approached one of the places where you could sense a seam through the dream, “Then, that's it? I let them in at any point once I dream of them?”

 

“That depends.” Gaster's eye glowed violet, and seeing this you tensed in anticipation of the incoming fight, turning to face him. “Learn, and perhaps you'll fine tune your control over this world.”

 

You stepped forward, everything blinking in a monochromatic tone before your dream firmly regained its hold and draped the battlefield in color. You hopped past the ground that rumbled warningly, dodging the bones in advance and slowly adapting to the attack pattern. Something itched at the back of your mind, but you focused on the moment, trying not to get blasted in the face by one of Gaster's cannons. Your pale purple soul could only cope with so much damage after all, even after training with Papyrus-

 

Suddenly the attack pattern made total sense.

 

Gaster's attack pattern reminded you of Papyrus, a few moments before a blue attack came whirling past you. If that was the case, then...

 

You deliberately began moving with the pattern in mind, advancing toward Gaster with your crystal shield summoned. In a few moments, the bones were going to overlap in a short-tall-short pattern that you'd be forced to jump over. You hopped, hit the ground and reflexively leaped as high up as you could forward to miss the short bone skittering through the ground and used your shield to arm you against the tall bone and spun forward. In a few moments, you bashed the shield against one of Gaster's hands, having aimed for his mending skull. You were relieved you didn't actually hit him, but more so pleased at the way Gaster hummed appreciatively.

 

“Getting better.”

 

“If Sans challenged me to a battle, would it also look like this?” You asked, leaning back and nearly tripping over the broken ground as you stumbled away from another attack and leaned behind the shield again.

 

“Perhaps, perhaps not.” Gaster responded ambiguously. The battle remained on your turn after, as you waited for an explanation. “Sans fights for different reasons than Papyrus. Indeed, perhaps different reasons than even I fight.”

 

“Did... he talk with you then?” You wondered out loud, adjusting your grip on the shield. A shadow seemed to pass through Gaster's expression.

 

“In not so many words.”

 

Puzzled, you finally mustered the courage to probe. “Gaster, what happened to you? Why does Papyrus not remember you, and why does it seem like Sans won't talk about or to you at all? And how did you even get here to begin with?”

 

Gaster put up his hands to your questions, rapidly signing in a rarely seen fluster. “G-goodness, one question at a time!”

 

You waited, tugging at your shirt collar, abashed. That might've not been the most tactful moment you've ever had, asking so many questions at once about the brothers.

 

“Perhaps you'll have the chance to see the Underground for yourself, within my brother's dreams. However, until that day, you may not fully understand the conditions there that might push someone to work in such dangerous conditions. I used to be the Royal Scientist, before Alphys was made scientist. I was handpicked for the position by both Asgore and Toriel, alongside a handful of trusted scientists.”

 

A long pause.

 

“They're... around. Or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that the shadows of their former selves remain.”

 

That's not ominous, at all. You didn't quite understand though, “They're not... like you?”

 

“No, not quite. Allow me to finish my explanation before you barrage me with more questions.” Gaster's hands signed something you couldn't quite understand and soon Gaster's name shone a tell-tale hue. You hit MERCY and decided to get comfortable as he continued. “In my time, I was maintaining a creation called the Core. This was how the Underground was powered with energy, and it harnessed the energy of the lava in the Hotlands. It was not a stable thing, given to shutting down when volcanic activity peaked. Truthfully, Mount Ebott is a dormant volcano, and the Underground was built around it. There's an intense amount of magic bound across a place in the Underground called the Hotlands, meant to repress the flow of lava regardless of any seismic activity that occurred, and it was repurposing this magic that powered the Core. Sans and Alphys were both interns during this time, so when conditions became unstable, they had to stay home and out of the way. Timing was critically essential, and my team was looking into solutions that would control the energy input from this system of old magic and volcanic energy.”

 

A wry smile formed on his face. “There were many suggestions to handle this problem. They ranged anywhere from dismantling the Core completely and redesigning the magic grid that coated the Hotlands, to just throwing a chunk of ice in regular intervals. Would you have guessed who'd thought that up?”

 

“That sounds like... a joke?” you snorted, a perplexed smile straining at your face. “Don't tell me Sans thought that up.”

 

Gaster nodded in confirmation, his eyes trained on your face as he mentioned emphatically, “But it worked. After I was gone, it became the Underground's most viable solution.”

 

You thought you might've guessed where this was going. “So, does that mean, the Core blew up one day? Taking you and how many other people with you?”

 

“No, you underestimate monster magic. The Core held strong, but the platform beneath our feet did not. In a particularly strong fit of seismic fury, the structure that allowed us to work on the Core became unhinged, and about a quarter of the monsters present was thrown off and fell into the Core's energy pool. That amount of energy is immense, so much so that even a Boss monster such as I was scattered across time and space, and the physical matter of my associates almost entirely dismantled. Even to this day, I do not quite understand the shades that remain in their stead.”

 

“By all considerations, we have been wiped out from the timeline. I visit here from a place I can only describe as the Void, this place being the only place that I could possibly hope to meet my brothers once more as it is not a physical place but a construct of human magic. That being said, I'm not sure that Sans has forgiven me for having the gumption to have disappeared the way I have, and leaving him to deal with a reality that doesn't even remember me.”

 

“So then, why does Papyrus not remember you?” You prompted, trying to wrap your mind around this place and fully understand what all had occurred. “And Sans does?”

 

“Sans has made a point to recall everything he can through his research before taking on other jobs. He had some help, through the documentation that I'd left to behind, pictures even that I'd... what do you call it when you're drawing during lectures? Doodles?” He gave you a pointed look, and feigned offense.

 

“Hey, anyone would doodle when their professor lectures in a monotone, and roughly half of my classmates will back me up on that!” You defended yourself.

 

“No excuses. You're allowed to doodle on your own time, not during class or training.” One of his disembodied hands wagged a bony finger in your face and you rolled your eyes.

 

~

 

“What do you mean we're going home- and you're staying here?!” Undyne demanded.

 

That morning had gone round and round, battling Undyne's instincts to keep everyone well protected. Unfortunately, this meant a very late start to the morning, and you pillaged the hotel's breakfast bar out of boredom and a nervousness that you couldn't quite explain. It was strange to see such a distinct strain between Gaster and Sans whereas Sans and Papyrus were so close. Was Sans really upset over the Core incident?

 

“I mean that you must return home in order to conduct a thorough search of the area.” Toriel told her firmly, looking every bit the stern leader that Asgore never quite projected. “Based on what Alphys's cameras have recorded, I highly doubt that this incident is unrelated to our troubles from before.”

 

“So they followed us even on our vacation?! Whoever they are.” Undyne gave a sneer of disgust, her eye narrowing. “But why are they targeting humans?”

 

“It doesn't matter why, at least for the moment. What I need you to do is go home and keep. Everyone. Safe. Do you understand, Undyne?” Toriel ordered, emphasis in each individual word as if every one was a standing order. “I need Alphys back home, as well. She knows what for.”

 

She exchanged a significant look over Undyne's shoulder with Alphys, who nearly quailed but gave a slight nod after gathering herself, face resolute. Sans spoke up, “if that's what you want tori. As long as you know you don't need to stay here by yourself.”

 

“I know. It's fine, Sans. And if you're feeling too bonely, you can just take one of your... 'shortcuts', I believe you call them?” Toriel's face softened with a slight smile, and Sans grinned back.

 

“all right, if we've goat to go, then we'll see you later tori.” Sans joked, brushing past her softly. You averted your eyes automatically from the unexpected tenderness of the gesture, as if you were peeping in on something private. “all right pap, let's get going now. we'll see you later.”

 

“C'mon, w-w-we're d-dropping you home after this, r-remember?” Alphys told you, just as you'd given up on getting anywhere and started pushing a spoonful of yogurt listlessly in the cup. Amber's luggage stared at you accusingly from next to your own. You felt worse and worse about leaving the more Undyne had argued, and now that it was time, you were staring blankly at her suitcase as if you were leaving her for dead.

 

A sharp pain stung from the back of your head.

 

“Ow!” You yelped, and grabbed at your hair. A little white seed dissipated in your grasp, and you looked at Flowey who stuck his tongue out and grinned at you. “What was that for?”

 

He didn't dignify you with a response, but his grin relaxed into more of a reprimanding look. Everyone started getting going as you were about to approach him, and forced you to redirect your attention again. Though, as you were thinking of him, you realized you'd been in the same room as Flowey during your dream, but never sensed him at all. He didn't say anything about it when you woke up either, but maybe he was annoyed about the birthday party too? You knew you probably still had to answer to Sans about it sooner or later.

 

That had to wait though. You had your own problems to worry about... namely learning how to climb the tree next to your window once your parents learn everything that's gone on in the last few months.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I actually forgot to ask, since I hit 100,000 words last time I updated, I wanted to know if there were any short scenarios you wanted to see written and posted after the story is done! Judging from my pace, I won't say that I'm *close* but there WILL be an end eventually and I feel like there's a lot of things that I'd been forced to skip just by circumstance like the bulk of holidays in the last few months that I really wanted to write for and haven't had the chance. I will also accept NSFW requests, I mostly dance around this in the main story for people who might not be comfortable with that but would still like to read this story! Incidentally, I think it's been about a year since I started this! Definitely crazy to think about.  
> Anyways, it's been a crazy couple of weeks, updates will likely remain fairly random as I try to settle everything down again. I've got about 2 chapters partially complete so theoretically we'll have Underswap finished up by Valentine's day! I hope everyone is doing wonderfully and that 2017 is treating you well!


	45. How to Introduce Your Skeleton Boyfriend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just so we're clear, your parents were probably going to laugh at you either way. They still love you though.

“Hey Mom, I'm home!” You announced to the house, as Papyrus and Undyne helped you bring in yours and Amber's stuff. You could hear her yelling from a distant room, but even further off you heard frantic thumping getting closer. Howling started up, with another dog barking as they barreled down stairs in the other room like a herd of elephants.

 

“Oh, you have dogs?” Undyne asked as she set down your suitcase. You nodded, as you prepared for them to come racing down the stairs.

 

“Yeah, the small one's mine. He likes to dance.” You explained, suppressing a smirk at their perplexed looks only to wince when you heard the dogs slam against the wall next to the staircase.

 

“O-oh, is that the one with the high-pitched bark?” Alphys asked. Within moments, two giant mutts came tumbling over, big and bigger. You watched as your brindled Boxer-Great Dane mix charged you and you side-stepped him, grabbing his paws as he hopped in place still yelping and howling excitedly.

 

“Yeah, he's a sweetie, arentcha Scoob?” You cooed to him, as you swung his paws back and forth, and danced in a slow circle so he could keep up on his hind legs. He whimpered and tried to flail his paws in your hands as you held them firmly to keep him from smacking you in the face. “The big baby is Ladybub.”

 

Ladybub was a Saint Bernard-Great Dane mix who all but hugged you at the shoulder standing on her hind legs and offered you a big slobbery kiss before dropping down and sniffing the monsters with leery interest. Papyrus and Alphys froze but Undyne dropped down on her knees to introduce herself to Ladybub in person and got a thorough sniffing and a long neck-to-forehead lick for her trouble. You explained, “She's just a year old, so this is her first time seeing me come home.”

 

“T-that's the s-small o-one?” Alphys squeaked nervously as you let Scooby down. He danced around you, whapping her with his tail as he demanded your attention.

 

“THAT'S THE BABY?!!” Papyrus squawked, as Ladybub sniffed him thoroughly, perplexed.

 

“That's our babies, yeah.” Your mom showed up, entertaining a not so secret smile of amusement at the dogs reactions to the monsters. Sans had come in just in time for Ladybub to investigate him, then duck into a play bow, nearly knocking over Alphys in the process. The poor lizard looked like she didn't know where to go to dodge, and settled for using Undyne as a shield.

 

“sorry buddy, my bones are full of pawsibilities, but playing isn't one of them.” Sans managed to pat Ladybub once she came closer.

 

“SANS WE'RE HERE IN KITTY'S HOUSE FOR FIVE SECONDS AND YOU'RE ALREADY PUNNING?! SHOW SOME MANNERS!!!” Papyrus stomped, startling both dogs into jumping him and both licking his face mercilessly. “N-NYEH S-STOP THAT!!!”

 

Ignoring his distress, your Mom demanded to you, “Honey, come here!”

 

You somewhat reluctantly walked over, and was bent over to hug your mom. She was much shorter than you, with dyed hair to hide the grey hairs. She hugged you hard, you suspected you weren't going anywhere for a solid 5 minutes, feeling your back begin aching in advance. “Hey Mom. I feel obligated to let you know my spine can support my head at this angle for 15 minutes max. Any longer and I might experience nerve damage.”

 

“You're fine!” Your Dad boomed from upstairs. “Except that you haven't said hi to me yet.”

 

“Dammit Dad, I've been here for like 5 seconds, lemme get through greeting the dogs and get out of Mom's headlo- I mean hug. And these are my friends, Undyne, Alphys, Sans and that's-”

 

You could feel your father's heavy footsteps on the stairs, before listening to him introduce himself to your friends. You just managed to pull yourself from the tight motherly grip in time to see Papyrus holding his hand out to shake.

 

“HI KITTY'S MOM, KITTY'S DAD! I'M THE GREAT PAPYRUS-”

 

“-and I hadn't gotten the chance to mention it yet, but Papyrus who is actually my boyfriend now!” You flailed at your Mom's look from him to you and back again. You weren't entirely sure what to expect, and it looks like at least your Mom isn't entirely sure how to respond.

 

“All right, the 'Great Papyrus'.” Your dad smiled genially and you scowled at him warningly. “Normally, I'd say I have to try out new boyfriends first but- OW! What? There's no body to try out.”

 

You punched him with all of the cold fury you could muster and glared at your dad, as you stuck your finger out at him. If you stopped to think about it, you'd probably realized your dad made you regress to your teen years in moments. As it was, you already knew right from the way he laughed hard at your attack that you were in for a ton of teasing for likely the rest of your life for dating a skeleton. “NO! Stop. You are a bad, bad person! On SO many levels.”

 

The dogs cocked their heads at your tone and laid down simultaneously. Papyrus was sweating, with no clue how to respond to this unexpected show of a violence from you and Undyne looked like she was about to cry from trying not to laugh at the scene. Still, your Dad managed to shake hands with Papyrus peacefully enough. It seemed like after a few months of talking to your parents about your monster friends, they were already well used to idea of them as your friends, but then there was one hitch you couldn't keep from happening.

 

Sans's eyes and your Dad's eyes met. And they stared. A mutual dislike passed through their eyes and you swore you saw sparks fly. Papyrus did not miss this either, and you exchanged nervous glances. Oh dear.

 

“knock knock.”

 

“What?”

 

Damage done.

 

~

 

You collapsed into your bed, exhausted. Not only did you have to keep everyone under control, including the dogs responding to the excitement of the event but then once they left, you had to explain everything that happened. You're pretty sure you won't be able to leave the house for at least a week, and that's only because you'll start doing what you wanted anyways, and they knew that. Mostly because they passed on that independent stubborn streak from themselves. Although, this wasn't an unreasonable response to their kid narrowly evading a kidnapping by any measure, you needed to be able to help your friends. Frisk was just a kid after all, and Amber needs you.

 

Scooby interrupted your thoughts by hopping into your bed just to box you in the face. He settled by stretching his paws over your lap and placed his head on your leg, making 'grumph' sound. “Okay, okay, I'll pet you.”

 

You managed to text Alphys while rubbing his ears.

 

-how're things going?

 

She didn't respond as quickly as usual.

 

-busy. ._.; not sure where to set up cams AT ALL lolllll

 

You grimaced. Poor Alphys, you wouldn't know where to start either. But at least you had an idea how you could help her.

 

-i'll try to keep an eye out too. y'know, as much as one can asleep.

 

Very quickly back, you received-

 

-oh YES pls!!! and stay safe, even tho u do have big dogs... ^.^;

 

You snorted, between Scooby and Ladybub, you'd be more worried about an intruder being boxed to death or drooled on.

 

-they're def not guard dogs. nah, beware of owner

 

-your dad?

 

-nah, mom.

 

-O-OH!!! LMAO

 

Success, you made her laugh. Maybe if you kept it up, you'll cheer up most of your friends before the night was over. With that goal in mind, you began texting everyone, including Frisk and Amber. You didn't know if they could get texts, if their phones were dead, but... just in case. You settled down to sleep, watching the numbers on your alarm clock go by, but very quickly relaxing with the familiar warmth of your dog sleeping by your feet.

 

~

 

You can't breathe, not really. When you'd open your mouth, you could still pull in oxygen but along with that, sweet cloying soil would tumble in, causing you to sputter. As you began struggling more fiercely, your instincts telling you to get out of here now, enough soil fell into your nostrils and you shook your head to dislodge it. The soil was moist, and easy to pull away, though you were more concerned with depth. How far under were you?

 

Somewhere in the midst of dirt and panic, cold sweat making your skin prickle uncomfortably, you hit something solid. The firm object wasn't a wall, but something that you could wrap your hand around and pull your way out. You broke through the surface of the earth like you had broken through water a night ago, but the ground was much more insistent on keeping you in its shallow grasp than the lake. You coughed and wheezed, spitting out mud and unable to prevent your shallow hacking like a hammer striking an anvil in the back of your throat, gritty with sharp bursts of pain. Eventually, you were able to breathe in more deeply, and you continued to work out grit your respiratory tract for a little longer.

 

The sweet scent of the earth wafted around you headily, an odd medicinal aroma that irritated your eyes, making them water. After getting a hold of yourself, and wiping off loomy soil that stuck to your forehead and eyelashes where it threatened to fall into your stinging eyes, you dared to open them and look around.

 

Dead trees sprinkled the rolling hills, the landscape promising to be long and winding with no end in sight. There was a ring of white mushrooms surrounding you, an eerie tell-tale sign of your presence. Slowly, you lifted your hand where the object that remained clasped, and looked. And stared.

 

It almost appeared to be a skeleton hand, so much that you pulled on it firmly to unearth more and examine it further for real bones. The texture should've given it away though, smooth and waxy and you'd realized what you uncovered were not bones, but more winding knotted roots that clutched at the earth. In a daze, you softly brushed the soil from the top of the root in your hand, and set it back down in the earth. Within moments, the roots seemed to have burrowed themselves back into the earth, nearly unsettling you but for the recent rescue. Considering that, you decided you wouldn't mind having these trees grasping so deeply into the earth, just in case you found yourself buried alive once more.

 

This wasn't your dream. You knew this, easily enough. You could feel nothing outside of yourself, your ability to find seams to other dreams, or enter the real world strangely muted. The fabric of the dream was alien, made of a different magic from your own. You risked taking a deep breath just to cough once more. Your head swam, and you steadied yourself against the ground, half curled fist brushing against a mushroom and you startled. You did not feel safe here.

 

You stood up carefully, and began walking. You didn't have much of a plan, but it was possible you might be able to find a way out. Gaster might be able to seek you out here as well since this was still a dream, so finding the highest hill and looking for him could be an option.

 

That idea lasted for all of five minutes by your measure, before the world began melting around you. The air wrapped around thickly, a pressure at your throat beginning to burn abrasively. You sunk to your knees in your internal struggle to keep air going into your lungs even through the acidic fumes, and becoming distantly aware of a slow languid stroke from the top of your spine down. You shuddered, and flipped backwards but the feeling spread into your flesh in a manner akin to smoke dissipating through water, past your spine in a curling buzzing numbness. You reached frantically to your back, trying to find some sort of barb or insect that could charge its venom through your skin like this, but stopped when an electrical charge laced across your soul.

 

You sucked in a hissing breath between clenched teeth and arched, your lungs still burning and head spinning, before you curled hard into yourself to release a primal scream at the wretched rejection of the toxic intrusion. Magic snapping back, pale lavender sparking and spitting angrily before crystallizing across your body, abruptly negating the creeping sensation. For a few seconds it seemed as if you were suspended in a cocoon of magic that boiled and seethed around you, and then it dripped and merged into the ground.

 

Veins of light purple magic split the hilly landscape, and raced up across the trees, even across the sky as if it were a solid thing. You could feel the magic laced up into the pained throbbing of your own body, the steady glow pulsing in time with your heartbeat. How were you supposed to use this though?

 

An errant breeze hit your face, the first sense of air moving you'd experienced since you became aware in this place. Then a hand pulled hair back from your face. You stood stock still, ready to dart at any given moment, or elbow back as hard as you could.

 

“They can't use you to your full potential. But I can.”

 

Their hand slid down your face, past your neck, shoulder, and followed your arm down to your hand. The fine hairs on the nape of your neck rose, prompting a shudder that you repressed by tensing all of your muscles, pulling your fingers together into a tight fist that made your joints crack. You could see your magic shimmering ever faster, a stream of tightening nervous energy that you imagined would somehow force this unwelcome presence back.

 

“Go away.” You uttered, meaning every syllable. Their hand stopped, not quite curling around your fist.

 

Then you clenched your eyes closed just as the world cracked into blinding shards of light.

 

~

 

Darkness, and your ears ringing. More importantly, as your vision attempted to adjust to the opaque darkness, the presence of multiple souls illuminated the walls of the house. One soul pulsed light that briefly illuminated the walls you were enclosed by, elevated by the outline of a bed. You could move unhindered then, the unseen carpet brushing your naked feet as you brushed your hand across the surface of the tiny soul.

 

There was less image in this dream, and more sensory input from ears and nose, following a hugely pungent scent and listening for the whispers of something hidden. Some sort of animal? You stroked the soul fondly and released it.

 

So, dogs do dream after all. You turned to the gentlest glow of light, a window in the room. Your skin still crawled from the dream that'd caught you like a net, but you could breath without trouble in the steady darkness. You waited for yourself to begin dreaming again, looking out of the window. Somewhere in the ebb and flow of souls, there was a pinprick of red brighter than the rest of the colors. So fixated on it, you hadn't quite realize that your HP had changed.

 

HP: 14/19

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got a couple of requests from the last chapter, all of which are cool by me, but feel free to keep requests coming for awhile! Working on finishing up the last (theoretically) Underswap Chapter as we speak. It's likely to be really long like the Underfell chapter, but it leaves me open to start on one of the other AU Extras. Possibly Swapfell, maybe the oneshots for the smaller AU's? Any preferences guys?


	46. Final Bonus Underswap Chapter: Kudoclasm and Altschmerz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You learn to cope with Chara's insecurities as well.

“Papyrus, you seemed to be perturbed lately.” Asgore remarked one day, when Papyrus was over for a cup of tea. Chara was off at school, so there were no concerns over being overheard.

 

Papyrus considered his response very carefully. “sometimes it seems... like the kid is unhappy. nothing to do with anything that i can tell, just strange mood swings.” He didn't say 'i think the kid might reset on a whim' but it seems like he didn't need to.

 

“Oh dear.” Asgore set down his tea cup and frowned, his furry eyebrows furrowing together in thought. “Then this is... about the research you've done previously, the same research that Undyne botched?”

 

“she meant well, asgore.” Papyrus chastised lightly. “but yes, the anomaly and determination. the machinery has shown countless hiccups, possibly a few years worth of possible resets. i... want to believe this is the end of all of that. but i feel like i haven't moved on either. it's tough to move forward like this when i feel like i'll be yanked back at any moment.”

 

Asgore tapped the table lightly, his gentle eyes perplexed. “I can see how that may be a problem, but at this point in time, resuming research could prove more detrimental than helpful. Particularly given that DT has proven so disastrous in the past...”

 

“I may have a solution.” Another voice sounded from under the table, startling both monsters, and causing Papyrus to feel himself break out into a nervous sweat at the high pitch. Asgore retrieved Temmie from under the table, scratching their ears with the little thing purring. He still wasn't sure what it was about the creature's voice that felt like someone was scratching the back of his skull with chalk, but he never did feel quite comfortable with Sans's and Chara's friend. “DT just doesn't work on monsters, but humans can handle DT just fine. They even produce determination naturally, so why not just-”

 

“and you know about dt, how?” Papyrus interrupted, somewhat suspiciously.

 

“Oh, here and there.” Temmie waved their arm around expansively, the arm literally expanding before shortening to a normal length. Their expression narrowed significantly with a tight smile strained across their mouth. “Do you want my solution or not, you garbage heap?”

 

He honestly wasn't sure he did, but remained silent. Asgore prompted for him, “What are you suggesting, Temmie?”

 

Temmie broke into a wide smile, “Why not inject DT into a friendly human you know WOULDN'T be so inclined to resetting? Their determination would then override Chara's determination, and keep them from resetting JUST because of a bad day.”

 

Papyrus was certain if he had salivary glands, he would've felt his mouth go dry at the thought of injecting the alarmingly red DT into one of your veins. “why.”

 

“Are you stupid, garbage heap?” Temmie growled.

 

“no, why would you suggest that?” Papyrus groaned. In his mind's eye, he could see the amalgams, but he could also see the easy way that you handled the barrier in the dream before it shattered. Up until now, your innate ability was something Papyrus was happy to overlook, just a way to enjoy more time and watch you play with your magic like the monster kids would. Taking away that gentle purple hue of your magic, with the prick of the needle and forcing it crimson... was beyond wrong.

 

Temmie shrugged. “Oh, no reason. Do or don't, it's all the same to me.”

 

~

 

“Hold still!” You told the shih tzu puppy sternly, as it growled and bowed, slapping her paws forward as she squirmed close to the exit eagerly. You moved your hands around her as she nipped at her fingers to try and provoke a play response. You took your hands back, and stared hard. “No!”

 

The puppy's tail remained wagging for a few moments before abating, and then reluctantly, she rolled over to show her stomach to you. She still wiggled with herky-jerky impatience, letting you know that this wasn't quite the submissive sign you were looking for, but you still needed to refresh the water bowl before the shelter opened up for business. Quickly, you rubbed her tummy and held her firmly as you reached over her to snag the bowl before closing the cage swiftly and refilling the water. Your phone buzzed unexpectedly in your pocket, leaving you to pause in your balancing act with the water dish, the excited puppy anticipating your return, and the phone.

 

It buzzed again. Dang it, it's not just a text.  
  


“Uhhhh fuck...” you muttered, and rolled back and forth on the balls of your feet before deciding to take action really quick. You shoved your hand in the puppy's mouth far enough she couldn't bite down properly, and kept her backed up enough to shove the water dish to the back of the cage again before closing it real quick and rattling the cage door. You stuck your fingers between the bars to pet apologetically as you grabbed the phone from your pocket with your free hand and got chewed on for your trouble. “'Sup, taking care of a puppy who hasn't had breakfast yet, so make it quick before I get chewed down to the bone.”

 

The phone was quiet, and then a click was heard, and you stared at the phone suspiciously before the disconnect tone started buzzing. With a sigh of exasperation, you hang up before checking the caller, and texting him.

 

-hey, you don't even have a butt lol stop butt dialing me

 

You didn't get an immediate response, so you shook your head and decided to ignore it. You continued getting the dogs' cages clean until you were finally joined by your fellow volunteer, a sleepy girl by the name of Kaitlyn who had trouble getting up early in the morning. She wasn't allowed coffee on the floor, especially when no one noticed her last cappuccino had spilled and the puppies tried to lap it up. The manager on duty had caught it in time and she got a pretty intense scolding about caffeine poisoning in dogs as well as zoonotic disease transmission, but she's been half asleep on duty since.

 

With a jaw popping yawn she greeted you with a muffled “M~ahhhh~nin'... how're the puppies doing?”

 

You showed her the swelling red stripes and dots from claws and play bites on your arms with a wry grin. “More awake than you and I.”

 

“Do you remember being that energetic in the morning? Like, actually waking up the moment you wake up? Getting up used to be easy, dang it...” she grumbled. “When are you heading out?”

 

That was when your phone buzzed again, once this time, so it was just a text. You explained as you were checking it, “I was thinking about noon, I've got to pick up a few things for a party later. You think making snacks for later would be too overboard, or should I just buy a couple of bags of chips?”

 

-HELLO HUMAN, PAPYRUS ISN'T HERE RIGHT NOW BUT LEAVE A MESSAGE AND HIS BIG BROTHER SHALL TAKE IT TO HIM LATER!

 

You repressed a snort of laughter, texted back 'never mind' and 'see ya later', then put the phone away to see Kaitlyn trapped in another arduous yawn.

 

“Listen, I dunno who you're hanging out with, but they have to literally be soulless not to enjoy homemade chocolate chip cookies.” She said with a finger pointed up as if lecturing you, and then turned to begin pulling out the puppy pens. You quirked an eyebrow.

 

“Are you saying that because you think that's an ideal party offering or are you saying that because your hungry and you're low key craving sugar right now?” You teased as you began moving to help her.

 

She paused in the middle of setting them up on the floor, and then pouted. “... My boyfriend's going on a diet so I have to support him. I'd just about pay you to bring cookies, I'm going that crazy.”

 

The puppy pens and kitten pens were set up and the shelter manager had unlocked the doors. It wasn't long until the first customer came in, smelling of fried sweet bread and tobacco smoke. “hey, i've come to adopt a kitty.”

 

Recognizing his voice immediately, you intervened before your manager could take Papyrus too seriously. You snorted, leaning on the counter, “Oh yeah? What kind?”

 

He put a hand to his chin as if thinking. “hm... well, they have to be able to speak.”

 

You waved to the kitten pen. “That doesn't actually eliminate anyone, they all speak, and quite frequently I might add.”

 

The cacophonous yowls of cats scolding Kaitlyn who'd all but started nodding off inside the pen, then scolding each other, and then the world in general punctuated your statement. Papyrus nodded seriously, “i see what you mean. but you see, i'm kind of looking for the kitty of my dreams. they walk on two legs, keep the kitchen from blowing up occasionally, and are about to get off of volunteer duty right about... meow.”

 

He tapped across his wrist as if there was a watch there.

 

“How strange, I don't know any felis domesticus that fits those requirements, but there is a local homo sapien here that'd like to go about now. Is it coincidence, or a case of purr-fect timing?” You mused aloud as he shrugged with a slow growing smile and you turned to grab your stuff from the back room.

 

~

 

“Out of curiosity, were you trying to call me earlier?” You asked, as you nabbed brown sugar, chocolate chips, and vanilla from the baking aisle.

 

“not that i'm aware of.” He responded, but from the way he glanced away and sort of shuffled his feet, you looked to him expectantly. “what? you're looking at me funnily.”

 

“I thought you sat on your phone and accidentally called me about an hour ago I think?” You rubbed on your shirt collar absently, trying to figure out exactly what had happened, but with no facts to go on. “It was just dead air, and then it hung up.”

 

“huh.” It was quiet between you two for a bit, finishing collecting ingredients and paying for them, and sure enough Papyrus finally spoke up as you were hefting grocery bags. “has that been happening often?”

 

“No?” You responded, half-questioningly as you cocked your head and dug your memory for anything like that going on in the last couple of months. You shook your head more firmly after a moment. “No, nothing like that.”

 

“i see, well i guess i'll let you know before we get there. chara's been a little clingier than usual. maybe i'm just worrying too much, but they seem unhappy about something.” He took a moment to lean against the wall and was just fidgeting with the cigarette box, flipping open the cover and then closing it again. “normally, i'd let it go. we all have bad days, right? and with the kid, it seems like they've seen more than their fair share of them. the problem is, i can't let them just have a bad day...”

 

He paused, flipping the cover a few more times before the words dragged reluctantly out of him, “...i can't let them reset.”

 

The silence weighed heavily, shock prickling through your spine and settling at the back of your neck as you digested this. With a slow nod, Papyrus finally flipped the pack completely open and tapped a cigarette out. These words came out almost as a rush, as he vented, “i keep seeing everything i can do now, and no matter how i think about it, the only thing i'd like to do is keep moving forward.”

 

Lighting up the smoke and then inhaling deeply, Papyrus sighed, smoke billowing out from him like a grey cloud floating up to the clear blue sky, he said calmly “if you don't mind, maybe try giving them some chocolate chips. they like chocolate, so it might cheer them up.”

 

“That's no problem,” You told him automatically, still trying to wrap your mind around the idea of everyone having to experience everything all over again at the behest of a single person. Not just anyone, but a young kid too. Recalling your more rash moments in childhood, some of which you regretted deeply later, you could only imagine how tempting it might be to repeat the incidents and try to change them. With poorly concealed dismay, you muttered, “Is it really so easy to just hit the reset button on everything?”

 

“let's not find out.”

 

~

 

The house resounded with a rhythmic thumping, you could hear Alphys and Sans cheering loudly as you entered with Papyrus, a quick flutter in your chest due to nerves. As comfortable as you were with Papyrus, you were still crossing your fingers and hoping you didn't do anything stupid to make anyone else upset with you.

 

“HEY! YOU'RE HERE!” Sans shouted, more cheers directed at you, and next thing you knew you were shoved in the middle of a Booptube stream in progress with Undyne moving with the game dancer on the screen. Chara's facial expression fell from excited to neutral and they glanced away from the scene casually as if it didn't matter to them one bit.

 

“Great! Babe needs a break, and we're all sweaty too, I'm tagging you two in for her.” Alphys clapped your back and you gulped nervously. Okay, well you might not be making a fool of yourself in front of your new friends, but you're certainly going to be making a fool of yourself in front of an internet audience. You prepared for the game anyway by kicking your shoes off, then your socks so you won't be sliding all over the place. You placed them inside your shoes so they wouldn't get lost under the couch or something, and then pushed them out of tripping range.

 

Undyne flopped on the couch to look at the computer with the stream chat up, “They definitely want Papyrus up next, so which song is it gonna be?”

 

“which song requires the least movement?” Papyrus responded easily.

 

“WHA- PAPYRUS, THAT'S A BORING PICK!!! DON'T BE SUCH A SLACKER!!!” Sans scolded. “I'LL PICK!!!”

 

You didn't recognize the songs on this game, seeing as you mostly played the arcade dance game, so it was interesting to note that the game didn't use a dance pad but a remote instead. Sans retrieved the remote from Undyne and flipped through, trying to pick a song. Some of the songs were really goofy looking, a lot were old hits from the 80's and 90's, and a couple appeared to fairly new ones. Sans paused on one of the newer songs, and you bobbed your head in time with the tune, recognizing it as a foreign hit from a couple of years ago and resigning yourself to having the song stuck in your head for a solid week after they were done playing.

 

“MWEH HEH HEH, THERE'S NO BETTER WAY TO KEEP YOU FROM BEING LAZY THAN USE A DANCE ROUTINE WITH THE MARVELOUS SANS! WITH MY AMAZING MOVES, YOU'LL NATURALLY BE DRAWN INTO DANCING ALONG.” Sans schemed, eyelights shining like pale blue stars and Papyrus nodded along agreeably.

 

“you are pretty rad, bro.”

 

Sans dragged Papyrus up onto his feet, and you scooched over next to Undyne to see the chat blowing up with the excitement over the skelebros, song lyrics, suggestions to ignore the program and perform the original dance routine, and possible shenanigans to get into. You whispered to Undyne, “Whoa, they're pretty well-loved, huh?”

 

“The chat loves them in party games, I-I mostly was j-just doing this Booptube gig b-because Alphys was trying to help me get over being really scared of crowds and scary games...” Undyne whispered. Instantly, your heart went out to her. You still have yet to finish a children's game you've had since you were 8 because you were scared of the basilisk in the walls. “And this was supposed to handle both fears at the same time! B-but... it got a lot more fun, and once I started streaming with Alphys, I kinda just... wanted to play with everyone. C-crazy, huh?”

 

You weren't sure trying to handle two separate fears at the same time was recommended by psychologists anywhere, but it seemed to have worked itself out by itself so you nodded amiably. “So how often do you-”

 

You were interrupted from your conversation by being pulled abruptly from the couch and onto your feet by Sans, a remote strap shoved unceremoniously over your hand. “YOUR TURN!!!”

 

It was still mid-song, and you froze with your arms held out and the remote swinging from your wrist as you flail to catch hold of it. Your stance was still wobbling coltishly as you were trying to catch up with what was actually happening when Papyrus crouched low to the ground and laid between your feet. You smacked both hands over your face, turning bright red as your mind got dangerously close to short-circuiting.

 

Papyrus winked, eye still glued on the dance routine, “i know i've got no 'body' to dance with, but try to follow my lead anyways.”

 

He pointed up and you glanced at the television to see that you were supposed to do the same as him, albeit still standing and so soon enough you were following the virtual dancers, though you were still off-rhythm. You picked up on points as the chorus being the only part of the routine you were familiar with,

 

“Oppan Gangnam style~! Gangnam style!”

 

Sans and Alphys snickered at the 'dance' you both did as Undyne managed the chat, a little smile growing wider and wider as she typed and discussed the merits of real life shipping with the followers. Once the song ended, you excused yourself as gracefully as you could to go make cookies in the kitchen instead of being japed again.

 

“You can run, but you'll never be able to hide from the call of dance music!!!” Alphys called after you.

 

~

 

You've never been so uncomfortable making chocolate chip cookies in your entire life. The way Chara watched you intently as you cooked after following you in, keeping themselves far removed from the process by leaning on the back of the chair and making it screech against the tile back and forth was successfully disconcerting even through the music in the other room. They didn't approach you or try to peer over your shoulder, they just kept their distance, ruby eyes fixed on you. For once, you weren't too terribly put out by the noise level of the poor hand mixer that looks like it's seen better days since Sans and Alphys got a hold of it.

 

Finally, it was time to break out the chocolate chips. You made a point to measure out the appropriate amount, pausing for a moment and adding about half a cup more for good measure, and mixed it in. You popped a few chocolate chips in your mouth, checking to see if Chara was still watching you from the corners of your eyes. They were.

 

“Hey, do you want some chocolate chips? They're just over here, so feel free to grab them.”

 

The screeching of the chair stopped abruptly, as Chara got up and shuffled over, you thanking your lucky stars internally that the noise was halted. You picked up the chocolate chip bag and held it out to them, expecting Chara to take it, but they stared at it in your hands with uncertainty playing across their features. A little flummoxed, you held it open and tilted toward them so they could dig a handful instead.

 

“No... thank you.” They muttered, so low you weren't entirely sure you heard it right at first except that they turned away and walked out of the kitchen altogether.

 

~

 

The next few encounters with Chara were like that, tense and altogether unsettling. They seemed to be measuring you up, particularly when you were close to Papyrus at any time, and it didn't seem to matter what you did to alleviate the tension. It was getting to the point where you and Papyrus had to be more cautious about open displays of affection, saving close contact for nighttime, during the course of your dreams.

 

He was worried.

 

You were worried that he was worried.

 

He was reluctant to broach certain topics even in dreams, and you couldn't always predict which topics was closed off with him. You tried to ask him to help you with changing up the sky, finding that your dream was warping in strange ways in response to school stress. It would've been amusing if you weren't so put off by the way your trees turned into paper, wrapped in math and chemistry formulas, flowers in the meadow wilting like you'd neglected to water them.

 

“Uh, how do I make it stop?”

 

Papyrus shrugged, “try thinking of something else before bed?”

 

You groaned, “No seriously, the trees look like they'll give you a papercut.”

 

“you want me to 'school' you in magic?” he asked. You nodded, but he gave a quick shake of his skull. “... nah.”

 

You blinked at him. “Why not?”

 

He simply looked at you, his expression wistful and melancholy at the same time. “i'm no good at teaching. ask sans instead.”

 

It left you with the feeling of something out of place, but with no definitive reason for you to attach your suspicions to, you were forced to get your dream back to normal on your own.

 

Things came to a head one day when Asgore invited you over to tea. It was unusual to be around the older, quieter monsters, and he seemed content to simply sit and talk. Your curiosity about Chara almost prompted you to ask Asgore, but you weren't sure how he'd feel about you talking about his child. So you decided to ask about Papyrus's strange reluctance to talk about certain topics.

 

“Like what, my child?” Asgore asked. You explained the most recent incident, fairly certain that Asgore knew about the dreams already. As it turns out, you weren't wrong as Asgore nodded along at different points, sympathetically patting your hand at the mention of being buried in tests and assignments enough that it resulted in the change of your dream's environment, and being redirected to Sans's instruction.

 

“I may have an idea what's on his mind... I can speak to him about it at another time.” he offered. “If you don't mind, I can aid in your instruction, my child. You simply need to channel your intent properly.”

 

“Yes that'd be great! And if you know what's up, will you tell m-?” You prompted.

 

“Oh, Kitty.” You heard Chara's voice from behind, surprising you. You hadn't heard them come through the door after the bus dropped them off. Their pale face was drawn into a tight neutral expression. “Won't you come and play with me outside?”

 

You looked at them, and they you. They never invite you anywhere. You slowly got up. “Oh, sure.”

 

Asgore watched the way you followed his child out, Chara skirting him warily like he might tell them to play nice and you wearily as you prepared for another abrasive interaction. Papyrus certainly didn't trust Toriel enough not to use the DT idea if he was avoiding training you. It was disturbing that he didn't think Asgore wouldn't keep such a terrible idea to himself, especially seeing the shadow passing through his friend's eyes. Even if they asked a different human to accept DT injections, he wouldn't use the idea after seeing the amalgamates.

 

Regardless, after seeing Chara spare monster after monster and break the barrier on their own, he believed that his quiet, troubled and yet earnest child was more than capable of solving their problems on their own. He took a drink from the lukewarm tea, and frowned. Time to boil more water.

 

~

 

The sliding backyard door closed only a few moments before Chara stomped up, “Are you trying to push me?!”

 

“N-no?” you responded straight away, taken aback at the way Chara was finally talking to you directly.

 

“You don't sound too sure about that.” They pushed you, with more force than you'd expect from such a little kid. “Try again! Are you trying to push me?!”

 

“Whoa, calm down, and lay off.” You held your hands up peacefully, but Chara continued glaring at you. You protested, “Of course I'm not!”

 

“First my friends, and now my dad? Why are here, in MY house, talking to MY dad?” Chara shouted.

 

“We were just talking, like I do when I'm with the others. We're just friends.” You tried to comfort him.

 

“And Papyrus?” they gave you a hard stare, as you were at a loss how to respond even though you swore you know the question was coming. You couldn't say you and Papyrus were just friends. Not with the way he puts his arm over your shoulder, or how you leaned into it. Especially when you both had done it in front of Chara before you both thought anything of it. Their ire seemed to change, their shoulders drooping, and they glanced away to the backyard. “Why are you here, anyways? Humans don't like monsters.”

 

“I do.”

 

“Are you trying to take them from me then?” their eyes returned to you sharply, their face sullen.

 

“No, I- wait. Why would I take them?”

 

“Because that's what humans do. They take, and take, and take. They destroy the environment, they kill each other in wars and call it right, they-” Chara abruptly stopped, chest heaving from the outburst, and closed their eyes in their struggle to keep their composure. “They took everything from the monsters, monsters that's given someone like me so many chances and deserves everything good, and they'll do it again. My father trusts you too much and so does everyone else. If you're not out to take anything from them, then you're out to take them from me and I can't have that happen.”

 

“Chara...” the question slipped out of your mouth before you could think better of it, honest in its sheer perplexity. “...what happened? Before you fell?”

 

Like a switch, they went from from gloomily resolute to enraged. “What business is it of YOURS?”

 

They were pushing you again, your back hitting the wall of the house, but they kept trying to push you anyways. They were shouting, “WHAT GIVES YOU ANY RIGHT TO ASK THAT? HUH? YOU THINK YOU CAN 'FIX' ME?!! OR TELL ME THAT I'M ABSOLUTELY BONKERS, OUT OF MY HEAD?!”

 

They were beating on your chest, hurting enough that you managed to grab their flailing arms and hold them in place as they kept yelling, “I'M THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN KEEP THEM SAFE, THE ONLY ONE THAT _GETS_ IT! WITHOUT ME, SOMEONE'S GOING TO HURT THEM, SOMEONE WAY WORSE THAN I AM! I MIGHT BE A DISGUSTING PIECE OF GARBAGE BUT AT LEAST I'LL KEEP THEM SAFE! WHO ARE YOU BUT SOMEONE WHO'S JUST ALONG FOR THE RIDE?!!”

 

You weren't sure if you could even make yourself heard over the wall of sound Chara built up, but you needed to calm them down somehow. You let go of their wrists and hugged them hard, and they resumed hitting you, resisting the sudden closeness. “N-NO LET GO! LET GOOO!!!”

 

You endured the way they tried to box your face and pull your hair, their voice breaking up hysterically and kept up your firm hold. It definitely hurt, making your eyes water, but you tried to endure it stoically. Once they calmed down finally, both of you sunk down to the ground from the force of their tantrum, they said dully, “Just let go... I'm fine now.”

 

Carefully, poised to grab them again if they tried to hurt you or bolt, your grip relaxed. You winced when their hands brushed your cheeks, and their red eyes studied the wetness of your face. Your eardrums still ringing in the near-silence from the force of their yelling, you tried to say something, anything. Maybe you could say that you weren't upset, or maybe that they didn't look all right, but none of it seemed quite like the right thing to say to them.

 

Chara's eyes watered alarmingly instead, and they whispered hoarsely, “I'm sorry... I'm such a brat.” They buried their face in their hands before you heard a hiccuping sob.

 

You reached over slowly, no sudden movements, like you might with a new animal. With no reaction one way or another, though you were certain they were aware what you were doing, you pulled them into your lap. Pliable, they let you adjust your hold so it was nothing like your previous death grip and just loose hold as they continued to cry into their hands. It was a new kind of uncomfortable, feeling the pure pain radiating from each hard hiccup and long sigh before another hard gulp of air and more tears came running down their face and fists.

 

You could barely hear them croak to themselves, “Why? Why won't anyone hit me?”

 

“They like you Chara,” you responded automatically.

 

“You don't.”

 

“I don't dislike you, but I don't know anything about you. It just... you don't really like me.” You tried to explain, feeling a bit out of your depth with this.

 

“No... I don't.” They sniffled. “But... I'll get over it.”

 

They pulled themselves out of your arms, and stood up, brushing themselves off before walking to the back door and stopping. “Don't you dare tell anyone I cried.”

 

They walked away, leaving you to wonder what on earth just happened.

 

~

 

It didn't seem like a real improvement at first, in fact Chara seemed even more antagonistic than ever. They'd try to trip you, call you names, was usually behind any practical jokes directed specifically to you, and provoked you in anyway possible. You refused to take it personally, and then they'd throw another tantrum at you when no one was around.

 

And then wash, rinse, and repeat.

 

Papyrus noted how you winced when he patted a sore spot on your head, and from then on, was aware of all of your new defensive bruises that kept cropping up. You admitted during a dream that you were spending more time with Chara venting, but kept the details vague. He started avoiding all physical contact with you, and you suspected he was trying not to provoke any more outbursts than you've already endured.

 

You might've drawn a hard line with Chara, if it didn't seem less like a beatdown and more like a disclosure of their past. Every time they hit you had less force, less intent. Eventually, you weren't even bruising anymore.

 

~

 

You were volunteering one last week at the shelter before school started up again for the spring, before your phone rang. Seeing Papyrus's number, you answered and balanced the cell clumsily between your face and shoulder. “Yo, don't mind the cats, they're still hungry.”

 

“Hey, why do I need to Excuse Aunt Sally in math again?” Chara's childish voice emanated from the phone and you nearly dropped it and the cat food in surprise.

 

“Chara? Wait, Excuse Aunt Sally? Are you talking about order of operations? Do the math in paranthesis, then exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.” You rattled off. “And why are you using Papyrus's phone, anyways?”

 

“I had to get your number somehow, and I keep forgetting to write it down.” Chara responded casually, as if they didn't just randomly steal someone's phone. “And I need my math done before I walk through the door this morning.”

 

“And that's..?” You prompted.

 

“About 5 minutes from now, so gotta go!” Chara hung up. You shook your head, causing your phone to hit the concrete floor of the shelter. Joy. They needed to work on their 'goodbye' and you needed to stop answering your phone at work.

 

Then, one day, you managed to split a candy bar with them. You were proud of the relatively small accomplishment, and mentioned it to Amber. You could almost hear her shaking her head through the phone. “You have the patience of a saint, I would've lost it ages ago. What a brat.”

 

“Try not to use that around them.” You warned her immediately. “That's a bad one during their fits.”

 

“... oh. OH. Shit, now I feel bad.” Amber backtracked. Softly like someone might hear, she asks, “They really had an unhappy childhood, didn't they?”

 

“It's gotten better.” You responded simply.

 

~

 

Papyrus and Asgore were out in the garden with Papyrus watering plants as Asgore weeded when Chara came home from school. Or rather, it was more accurate to say they stomped home, and chucked Papyrus's phone at his head. He barely dodged the unexpected projectile, sweating a little.

 

“PAPYRUS SNOWDIN FONT, WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?” They yelled in an uncanny impression of an angry Asgore, who hid a secret smile at the sight. “WHY IS THERE LESS THAN 50 MESSAGES FROM YOU TO KITTY FROM LAST WEEK?”

 

“w-what?” Papyrus said in shock.

 

“My child, I thought you didn't like Kitty?” Asgore prompted.

 

“I DON'T!” Chara took the phone from Papyrus and started hitting him with it. “But I like other people even less and don't want to have to see you dating them when she breaks up with you 'cuz you're a terrible boyfriend!!! So. Call. Her!”

 

“okay, okay.” Papyrus took his phone back, and Chara stared at him, determined to see it happen. “when did you take this, anyways?”

 

“CALL HER!”

 

Papyrus scrolled through the contact list, and hit your name while Chara ran back inside and Asgore gave him an apologetic look. “so, chara wanted me to call for some reason?”

 

“Huh, that's weird.” You sounded like you just woke up. “They steal your phone again?”

 

“guess so. wanna go on a date?” Papyrus asked, resuming watering the plants.

 

“Huh?” All signs of sleepiness in your voice vanished. “Where's this coming from?”

 

“just a hunch about something,” Papyrus looked at Chara through the screen door, who was eating a cookie and watching him back. “so how about the movies tonight?”

 

“Let's see... I'll be back from a study group about 7 PM, if there's anything good airing then?” Your voice speculated.

 

“great, see ya then.” He hung up. Through the door, Chara pulled down an eyelid and stuck out a tongue out before running further inside. Papyrus shakes his head slowly, a bemused smile growing on his face.

 

“guess that's the closest thing to a blessing i'm getting from you, huh?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends Underswap! I'm still not sure if I've done Chara any justice, but I wrote as much as I felt would cover this without going overboard and just needing to give this its own fic. Next chapter will be out in a week, I'm making good progress right now, and really I just took the extra week because this is another double-whammy chapter much like the end for Underfell.


	47. Questionable Life Choices Just got More Questionable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You love seeing Papyrus, but his questionable choice in friends is making questionable decisions and you not-so-questionably hate it.   
> Also, your dogs continue to question some basic dog-assumptions they've made about the world.

That morning was punctuated by a light tapping on your window. You should have been surprised by that as you stirred and sat up in your bed but really, the only reason you hadn't already gone down to go greet the heart-shaped soul that was Papyrus's magical signature was that you hadn't actually woken up yet. You'd somehow skipped the whole night without any further dreams, essentially stuck surveying the city as a series of ever moving radiant souls. It kept you from getting bored, the normally mundane urban environment ever changing with slight suggestions of solid objects reflected in the light.

 

In the dim morning light, Scoob was sitting up ramrod straight on the far end of your bed, making huffing sounds that you knew preceded barking. Judging by the light, it was too early for your parents to be up. “Scooby, _down_.” You ordered sharply.

 

Scoob's head jerked to look at you and then the window as if to say 'But-', and you repeated your order. Recognizing when you were channeling your doggie drill sergeant, he finally slunk off your bed, only to stick his head on the windowsill and continuing to huff away like he had asthma. You padded over to open the window and was narrowly missed by the next pebbl- wait, that's not a rock! A white oblong shard of magic shot through the window and embedded into your ceiling before dissipating.

 

“What on earth are you throwing at me?” You shouted, sticking your head out the window. The sky was cloudy, explaining the grey light but Papyrus waved with a contagious grin on his face that had you smiling back with only a little of bit of puzzlement, as you spotted the flowerpot in his arms. Well, that explained the magic pellet at any rate. They had entered into your backyard through the gate door like they were actually sneaking around before finding your window. You teased, “Ha, I wasn't expecting a flower first thing in the morning! How romantic.”

 

Flowey giving you a sardonic smile was your only warning before more pellets formed in midair. You grabbed Scoob's collar and yanked him down with you, giggling madly, as a few extra pellets shot haphazardly in your direction. Flowey grumbled upon missing, “Oh haha, make fun of your good pal Flowey.”

 

“Sorry not sorry, but you know that just 'cuz I can't visit you, doesn't mean you can't visit me right?” You pointed to the back door of your backyard. “That's basically unlocked at all times since anyone who comes in gets mobbed by the dogs. Just let them say hi, and they probably won't bark too much and wake up the folks.”

 

“OKAY, ON MY WAY!” Papyrus wiped his boots on the hemp mat before opening the door and nearly getting bowled over by Ladybub who'd doubtless been staring at him through the door the entire time. “WOWIE OKAY, SO IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU TOO?! IT'S NOT AS IF THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS FORGOTTEN YOUR NAME OR ANYTHING, ERM... LADYBUG! YEAH!”

 

Ohhh so close, but fortunately your dog didn't care what he called her. She sniffed Flowey over, who looked increasingly uncomfortable at the thorough inspection. She seemed puzzled, but tailed them inside nonetheless, more concerned with the new company than the potential first morning bathroom break. You turned to open your door and Scoob ran out to go harass the odd pair. A few minutes more of the dogs thoroughly examining Flowey, and you managed to shut the bedroom door in their faces. Noses promptly appeared underneath the door crack.

 

“Nosey, aren't they?” Flowey grumbled, and then colored through his petals as you both sniggered at him. “Listen, the smiley trashbag doesn't have a monopoly on puns, okay?!!”

 

“Smiley trashbag?” You questioned, though you were pretty certain you knew what he was talking about. Flowey merely shrugged, as much as a plant could anyways, shaking his petals oddly in response.

 

“Doesn't matter, but what does matter is the little situation we have on our hands.” Flowey redirected the conversation, not directly answering you.

 

Papyrus picked it up immediately, setting Flowey down while the both of you sat on the floor with him. “OH YES, I WAS TALKING WITH FLOWERY HERE-”

 

“Flowey.” You corrected, but Flowey waved it off impatiently, shaking his head at you.

 

“-AND HE ASKED ME TO EXPLAIN WHAT WAS GOING ON AT THE BIRTHDAY PARTY!” Papyrus continued, already too caught up in the narrative to notice. At least now you knew why Flowey shot you in the back of the head back at the hotel. The plant seemed to know what was going on more often than not, something you attributed to being in Frisk's presence more often than not, and with the pseudo-sibling gone he was likely more out of the loop now than he'd like. “UPON MY EXPERT NARRATIVE OF YOUR DREAMING PROWESS, HE MADE A VERY GOOD POINT FROM WHICH WE'VE FORMED A PLAN FOR HOW TO GET FRISK AND AMBER BACK!”

 

“Wait, really?” You asked, looking to the two of them as your heart lurched into a high galloping rhythm. “Spill it!”

 

The two looked pleased at your demand, Flowey with a self-assured smirk, and Papyrus all but leaning forward eagerly as the words tumbled forth. “WITH YOUR ABILITY TO ACCESS OTHER PEOPLE'S DREAMS-”

 

Your door suddenly swung open with little warning and the dogs clambered through to climb all over you and Papyrus, sniffing, snuffling, and inevitably licking as your mom looked at the scene, her gaze settling on Papyrus briefly before being drawn by Flowey hissing at Scoob's curiosity. She didn't react much to the flower at all, even though she hadn't seen him before. “I thought I heard voices. Are you hungry? I'm making breakfast.”

 

“That'd be great, thanks mom.” You shooed away your dog, more for his sake than Flowey's and offered your mother a smiling pokerface kids reserve particularly for snoopy parents until she closed the door, then dived under your bed for your boogieboard. Contrary to your expectations when someone gave you the device, it was not some sort of kids skateboard but a hi-tech etch-n-sketch. You wrote real quick on it, then passed the message around,

 

No talking about plans out loud

 

“Aren't you an adult?” Flowey stated flatly, giving the electronic sketch-board an unamused stare. You uttered an 'oh' of realization at his lack of hands, and gave it a perplexed stare of your own, but Papyrus grabbed it and began scribbling on it. “Shouldn't you be able to do things like, I dunno, speak out loud without worrying about whether they're listening?”

 

“Parental over-protection isn't a rational phenomenon,” You grumbled, more to yourself than them. Flowey made a disgruntled noise at your statement nonetheless, briefly avoiding anyone's eyes. “I can still do what needs to be done, so don't worry about that. This just makes things easier.”

 

Papyrus finished writing with a flourish, and tapped on the board.

 

WITH YOUR ABILITY TO ACCESS DREAMS, YOU'D BE ABLE TO CONTACT US FROM WHEREEVER YOU ARE WITHOUT A CELL PHONE, RIGHT?

 

“I mean, as long as I'm asleep I can. And someone else is asleep.” You pointed out. “It's not quite as convenient as a cell phone, y'know.”

 

Flowey smiled smugly and said, “That won't be a problem when we have someone like Sans.”

 

“YES! SANS IS ALWAYS SNOOZING AT ODD PARTS OF THE DAY SO THIS IS THE BEST ROLE FOR HIM!” Papyrus nodded, agreeing with himself. He wondered whether or not he should bring up the beach where he'd woken up only to be dragged directly your dream all over again.

 

You considered what they said, but you didn't really want to be caught between the awkward family re-reunion between Sans and Gaster.

 

You conceded reluctantly, but warned them “Let's try not to rely on that.”

 

“I KNOW SANS SEEMS LAZY, BUT HE'S AN EXPERT AT THE THINGS HE LOVES! NAMELY SLEEPING AT STRANGE HOURS.” Papyrus assured you. “HE'LL BE MORE THAN HAPPY FOR AN EXCUSE TO TAKE A SNOOZE BREAK IF I LET HIM.”

 

Flowey continued the conversation to illustrate another point. “Anyways, it's as close to a perfect emergency contact system as we could ask for. Even if you were to be... well.”

 

A vine started curling across the ground and you try not to jump too much in your shock. “Uh, you're mobile in there?”

 

“YEP! THERE'S A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE POT, SO FLOWEY CAN SLIP OUT OF THE FLOWERPOT!” Papyrus chirped, and you couldn't help giving him a wary look. You'd never seen him move out of the flowerpot before, let alone use vines.

 

The vine simply traced along the pad to spell out what Flowey wanted to convey:

 

Even if you were to be kidnapped.

 

Now it was your turn to give him an unamused look. “Why?”

 

“Because whoever is behind this, is clearly after HUMANS.” Flowey explained. “And thanks to- well, whatever the heck you did, you're the only human we've got at the moment. Heck, because of what you did, you might even be our ace in the hole! Golly, what a cool trick! Aren't you lucky?”

 

You could tell what they were getting at. It seemed likely that whatever happened with Frisk and Amber, they didn't seem to have access to a phone. And since the kidnappers were after humans, you'd serve as live bait, the kind that didn't have to be conscious to send an SOS. You were in the middle of thinking about how happy you were that you had them writing it down instead of risking being overheard by your parents, when the door opened, startling you so that you dived to brutally smash the erase button causing the screen to blink blank.

 

“I've got some scrambled eggs.” Your mom announced to the silent room, and you felt sweat rolling down your forehead. This was starting to feel more and more like a conspiracy and less like a plan to save your friends.

 

“Thanks, we'll head downstairs to eat soon!”

 

~

 

“There is one thing I can't figure out though.” Flowey announced once you were able to retreat back to your room peacefully. “A fly stuck in the honey, so to speak.”

 

“Yeah, I can think of a few problems...” you grumbled, thinking of your parents.

 

“How are we going to lure them out if you're holed up in here with a couple of giant dogs.” he pointed to the dog invasion that remained in the room. “No one's going to risk marching straight up to your house with these drooling idiots at the door.”

 

Ladybub raised her head from her forepaws and snuffled at Flowey. “H-hey I was just talking ABOUT you, not TO you!”

 

You thought of the dream before, worrying the edges of your worn pajama collar with a light twisting around your fingers. Papyrus recognized the gesture, watching your gaze directed away, doubt playing in your features. “KITTY? YOU'RE DOING THE THING AGAIN. THERE'S SOMETHING BOTHERING YOU?”

 

“I'm not sure just yet,” You shook your head. The dream felt distinctly like someone else's dream, almost like a magical bubble that isolated you from your dream world. The suffocating sweet air had made you feel sick, a stark contrast to the soothing effect of the lavender fields and the calm surface of the lake in your dream. “More like a bad feeling than anything else, like... maybe I'm not the only one who can manipulate dreams with magic. I was dreaming someone else's dreams last night.”

 

“HUH?” Papyrus and Flowey gawked.

 

“It was like getting caught in a net of some sort, I don't really know what to make of it.” You said, a slight perplexed shrug.

 

“Say, this is just a guess, but there's someone else in your dreams usually, isn't there?” Flowey responded thoughtfully.

 

“YES, FLOWEY'S RIGHT! I SAW SOMEONE ONCE IN A DREAM WITH YOU!” Papyrus nodded. You felt the blood drain away from your face. Uh oh, it's too early in the morning for evading these questions. “HE... CALLED ME BROTHER FOR SOME REASON, BUT THAT CAN'T BE RIGHT...”

 

“Uh...” You tried to think of a reasonable explanation. Nope, you got nothing. You briefly considered jumping out the open window like Papyrus did the one time, but then remembered that the porch below was concrete and would probably hurt.

 

“So, it begs the question... who's been in your dreams?” Flowey probed, and you definitely didn't like the look of interest he had.

 

“I...” you didn't know what to say, feeling cornered. “He's... just kinda there. He first showed up in pieces so I've just been gluing him back together. He wouldn't be the one to be pulling me in a dream like that though, and this dream really... hurt.”

 

You cringed internally at the memory of the sharp pain that flooded your nerves radially from the spot in your back, and wasn't able to help reaching behind to check and make sure there was no signs of the dream from before. Your vague explanation didn't seem to satisfy Flowey, but his questioning got derailed when Papyrus reached behind you. “YOU'RE HURT?”

 

“Ah, not really...” you muttered, “There's nothing there.”

 

“HERE, LET ME CHECK-” Papyrus responded, brushing your back and didn't seem to be feeling anything. You could feel a warm brush of magic.

 

“Ugh, it's almost worst than Asgore and Toriel back in the day...” Flowey grumped, making a face of disgust. “You two can play soul doctor later, we need to plan around this if this is going to work.”

 

“THAT'S STRANGE...” Papyrus sounded distant, and you felt an extra flare of his magic running through you, making you jolt straight up even as he all but picked you up and onto his lap. He began brushing his hands down your arms, your sides, probing for a reaction.

 

“W-what are you doing?” You suppressed a wiggle when he accidentally tickled you, squeezing around your knees. He finally stopped, only to pull out your soul directly. Now even you could see something amiss, and you reached to probe the surface of your own soul, your thumb catching an edge where there shouldn't be one. Your eyes weren't playing tricks on you.

 

“YOU'RE MISSING A PIECE.” He reported, his voice still sounding odd. “YOUR HP LIMIT IS LOWER.”

 

Flowey scooched over with interest. “Golly! I've seen a lot of things before, but I've never seen a soul look like an apple with a bite taken out of it.”

 

You pulled back your soul forcibly, not trusting your being out where Flowey could mess with it. Bemused, and pushing your hands protectively to your sternum, you said “Okay, that's weird. And not good.”

 

“YOU KNOW WHAT, MAYBE THIS PLAN ISN'T SO GREAT AFTER ALL.” Papyrus voiced, uncertainty bubbling through his demeanor. “LET'S COME UP WITH SOMETHING ELSE.”

 

Silence.

 

“WOWIE, SO THIS WAS A BIG BOULDER OF BAD WE JUST DODGED! I'M GLAD WE HAD THIS TALK, BUT I REALLY NEED TO GO BACK AND WAKE SANS UP FOR THE DAY.” Papyrus declared, his features forced into a tight smile.

 

He seized you in a tight hug, and made a 'mwah!' sound as he pushed his teeth to your cheek. “I'LL COME BACK LATER TODAY, MAYBE WE CAN HAVE A NON-PLATONIC HANGOUT!”

 

“Okay, see ya?” You watched him run out of your room and get chased by the excited dogs as far as the door before you realized he was leaving Flowey with you. “WAIT NO-”

 

“Annnd he's gone.” Flowey noted. “Golly, I wonder how long it'll take him to remember that I'm still here?”

 

You gave the flower being a look of trepidation. “I don't suppose you want to be put outside to photosynthesize?”

 

“Wow, rude.” Flowey snarked in return, his smile not touching his eyes as he looked back at you flatly. “So this mysterious being you've been putting together... I'm willing to bet that he rhymes with 'blaster', and that Sans has you keeping your mouth shut about him.”

 

“I plead the 5th?” You offered, feeling yourself break into a cold sweat.

 

“I can keep my mouth shut,” Flowey said sweetly. “But you gotta go through with the plan.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doing good on the schedule so far, I think I'll make another weekly update on time. Flowey really isn't the best influence, is he? Anyways, I was thinking of taking on Swapfell next. The other popular suggestion was one I hadn't quite considered before, I'd like to take some time to think how that one would pan out. Swapfell will likely be about 3-4 chapters long much like the last ones, and then I'll probably start doing oneshots as the story comes closer to the end. That sound good to everyone?


	48. Let's put it on the Backburner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone save you from your frienemies.

You were just through with letting Flowey out, via setting his flowerpot outside in the soil of your backyard and watching him disappear from it like a person vanishing from their portrait, when Sans cracked into existence next to you.

 

“OH my god, Sans you have got to stop taking a short cut for like, no reason.” You jumped and clutched at your heart in fright. Your day was certainly shaping up to be all sorts of bad, and it's not even lunch time yet.

 

“didn't mean for my appearance to be a real heart-stopper but we gotta talk.” He announced, looking more tired than usual. You could almost relate, except for the fact that you were experiencing this internal screeching of terror that demanded you don't sympathize with someone who's likely been upset with you over the course of the last few days and has conveniently just showed up after Flowey was through blackmailing you into a terrible plan that you're halfway sure is going to get you killed. So, it was safe to say that life has not prepared you for this day whatsoever.

 

“I swear to god I didn't mean to peep on your soul when I was first figuring out how to SURVEY, turn Papyrus's birthday into an HP maxing snoozefest, or for my dad to crack a joke about how Papyrus would never be able to knock me up because he's a skeleton monster and-” you babbled, and Sans raised his bony hands to stop the flow of words with a somewhat alarmed expression.

 

“whoa whoa, easy there. The first thing I figured was an accident, and the third thing- i get not being able to control the actions of your family. which transitions to the second part,” Sans began.

 

“I will profusely apologize-”

 

“blue stop sign.” Sans flipped a hand up again casually. “paps taught you what that meant, right?”

 

“Yeah.” You sighed, feeling tired suddenly as your head pulsed with the promise of a headache. “Stay perfectly still.”

 

“all right, good. just listen for a second, this is about the one in your dreams.” Sans told you. “i know i asked for you to keep things rolling, and keep me updated.” Sans said, eyes closing for a second. “you even found a way that i could see the results for myself, whether or not you intended to hook up everyone's dreams like that. i'm willing to bet that's partly his influence too-”

 

His eyes opened, and he gave a perfectly serious look. “and that's why i want you to stop.”

 

You hesitantly raised your hand like this was a class and not just talking to your boyfriend's brother. Sans shrugged, “all right, shoot.”

 

“What happened with your brother?” You asked simply.

 

“none of your beeswax.” he responded with a light tone.

 

“Okay, why do I want to stop interacting with Gaster?”

 

“i don't know.” He said tersely. He didn't seem to like you saying his name out loud.

 

“That's...” you gave him a long stare. “... not even a reason?”

 

“just, trust me until we get the kid back, and then you can ask them all about it. in the meantime, blue stop sign, capiche?” Sans asked you, looking for confirmation.

 

You didn't capiche at all. There was a lot that Sans has told you which was overly vague, and required you to be totally alert when you were talking to him to guess at what was going through his head, but this took the cake. Yet, you had your hands tied. You couldn't handle Flowey and Sans at the same time to save your life on a metaphorical level, and you definitely couldn't do it to save Amber's and Frisk's literal lives. The only thing you could do was give him a slow nod and make a note to try and resolve this later.

 

Sans gave you a long measuring look before he relaxed. “good. my break ends soon, so i'll see ya later. have fun with papyrus. don't set the house on fire, or the firemen will combustion in.”

 

He snickered as you barely controlled your smile, “Okay that was awful. How dare.”

 

“heh, try not to let him rub off on you too much. that was a good one and you know it.” At that, he walked through the garden gate and disappeared with the blast of magic you were growing familiar with. You saw him flickering along the sea of souls after all, your attention drawn to Papyrus's soul which was in proximity. Sometime while watching the rhythmic waves of sleep radiating from Papyrus, broadcasting loud and clear, you nearly missed the weaker waves that you soon associated only with people moving around- that is, he must have been awake. His soul would suddenly blast magic in waves and then be gone like a shot.

 

You blinked, suddenly aware of the warming air around you, a breeze leaving the suggestion of rising humidity. You took a moment to look around, finally registering your surroundings in totality. But, when did you start tuning out the physical world?

 

Disturbed by the entirety of the morning, you wanted nothing more than go back to sleep and continue searching out Frisk's and Amber's soul. If what Flowey told you was right, then Frisk's soul radiating determination should be easy enough to root out. There was just the matter of avoiding detection by the dream enemy while you were asleep, and assuming that they had to sleep to find you, then what easier way to evade them than to hold odd hours?

 

With this thought in mind, you were heading upstairs, dogs on your heels, to do just that. Your phone vibrated in your pocket, just as you approached your bedroom door, and with a sigh you checked it. In all of the excitement of the day there wasn't just one, but a few text messages you've been studiously ignoring. The most recent was from Alphys, asking if you've spent any quality time with Papyrus. You paused. Oh... right, that date. Or non-platonic hangout, whatever Papyrus liked to call it. On second thought, who does important life saving missions the second they get them from strange flowers?

 

Certainly not you.

 

~  
  


“DATE START!”

 

You blinked at the unexpected number of doohickeys that showed up along the interface, and asked him, tapping the doggie radar, “Is this uh, necessary? For a date?”

 

“OH NO WORRIES, THIS IS MORE OF A GUIDE THAN ANYTHING! NOW FOR MY SPECIAL CLOTHES-” Papyrus suddenly dashed off from your room, followed closely behind by Scooby.

 

“Wait, special dating clothes? We're just hanging out in my room! And also, you didn't show up wearing what you would wear on a date?” You asked from across the hall, and you swore you could hear your parents laughing downstairs. You hung over the rail and yelled, unable to keep a smile from twitching into place in the meantime, “YOU GUYS SHUT IT, I WANT NO INPUT FROM THE BIRTHGIVERS!”

 

He came back in wearing basketballs for shoulder pads, a “Cool Dude” shirt that looked as if he just took a sharpie to a plain white shirt, and strangely Disney-esque shorts. On one hand, it wasn't hot pants. On the other hand, you were still trying not to bust a gut laughing. Papyrus took your reaction with good humor though.

 

“HEY, YOU ACTUALLY MADE AN ALTERNATIVE FACIAL EXPRESSION UNLIKE FRISK'S OWN REACTION! THIS DATE IS GOING SPLENDIDLY ALREADY!”

 

“I'll admit, I am nowhere near Frisk's pokerface skills.” You clapped lightly with a few last giggles escaping. “Um, I'm not totally certain if this is necessary, but since this is a date and I actually don't have any real gifts, I did cook something if you're hungry?”

 

“O-OH!” Papyrus paused, and then turned around to crouch over something. “HMM THIS CONTINGENCY WASN'T MENTIONED HERE...”

 

Oh boy, whatever this was, you should probably nip in the bud before it became a housefire or something equally destructive. You leaned over his shoulder to see a book, and aware of your position to his, whispered next to his skull mischievously. “Whatcha got there Puppy?”

 

“NYEE!!!” Papyrus screeched and straightened up to try and hide the book. “ERRRR WELL, I'VE BEEN USING THIS DATE BOOK TO GUIDE THE PROCESS. I THOUGHT I'D CAREFULLY MEMORIZED ALL OF THE THINGS I NEEDED TO DO, BUT IT SEEMS THAT YOU WERE AHEAD OF ME! YOU SEE, I BROUGHT A GIFT OF MY OWN, CAREFULLY HIDDEN SOMEWHERE ON MY PERSONA!”

 

Well, he certainly did. Careful wasn't the first word to come to mind to describe the large disc shape pushing out his sideways tilted cap, but to be fair to your bonefriend he somehow managed to perform his shenanigans without dropping it anyways. “So then, I need to find it?”

 

“YES! BUT AS MY SUPER COOL GIRLFRIEND, I THINK YOU'LL HAVE NO TROUBLE FINDING IT!” Papyrus told you with a confident grin, and you gave him an affectionate smile back. And to think you almost decided to take a nap today instead.

 

“Hm...” You grabbed his hand as you thought out loud.

 

“WHAT, NO CHEATING!!!” Papyrus scolded, blushing and sweating at your forwardness.

 

You laughed, “Not even a little bit?”

 

“NOT EVEN A MODICUM OF A FRACTION OF A CHEAT!!!”

 

Welp, time to play fair and square then. You let your gaze settle on his face, meeting his eyes much longer than strictly necessary, and you could see his goofy smile return even though the flush of magic didn't fade. You tapped on his ribcage, “Here?”

 

“NO! THOUGH I CAN SEE HOW YOU'D BE ATTRACTED TO MY BRILLIANT PENMANSHIP, AS THIS SHIRT DID NOT START OUT SAYING 'COOL DUDE'!” Papyrus explained as you went from the light tap to patting his sternum, and then you just hugged him.

 

“It's in your hat, silly.” You murmured, pressing your face to him, and unexpectedly feeling tears threaten to well up.

 

“YOU KNEW ALL ALONG!? YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL, I KNEW IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN THAT HARD TO GUESS!” Papyrus pulled off his hat, carefully keeping the container full of ravioli balanced in it as he set both things on your bed and hugged you back. “H-HEY, WE CAN'T GO BEING ALL TOUCHY JUST YET! WE AREN'T DONE WITH ALL OF THE OTHER DATE ITEMS.”

 

You made a point to compose yourself so that when you looked back up at him, you were perfectly calm and happy. “Since when did we ever follow things by a rulebook anyways?”

 

“YOU KNOW THIS ISN'T JUST ANY RAVIOLI, RIGHT? THIS IS MY SPECIAL DATING RAVIOLI!” Papyrus informed you and suddenly you were handling the container much more warily.

 

“What did you do to it?”

 

“AUDIBLE WINK!” Papyrus said out loud and then winked for real.

 

~

 

Okay, this wasn't anywhere near as bad as you were worried it was going to be, you mused as you tried your first portion. Even though the garlic flavor was a little overpowering, and the outside of the raviolis managed to be crispy despite having been apparently cooked properly judging by the minimal chewiness of the ricotta cheese filling. Actually, there was something unusual about the flavor...

 

“HAVE YOU FIGURED IT OUT YET?” he asked eagerly.

 

“It... doesn't taste like it's been prepared by the store.” You noted, being able to taste fresh herbs, basil and oregano at the forefront, until the sharper flavor of the cheese filling took command. With the sudden realization, you felt... well, touched. “You made ravioli from scratch.”

 

“YES! YOU GUESSED RIGHT!” Papyrus all but cheered, but reigned himself in to play it cool in front of you. “SO HOW'S MY DATING POWER NOW?”

 

Smiling so hard it hurt, you allowed your magic to manifest a part of the dating HUD on your own, the atmosphere triggered by the “Date Start!” point and your intent making it startlingly easy compared to your combat shield. “Check for yourself.”

 

The bar was easily inching to its maximum limit, a triumphant flush appearing on Papyrus's face. “EXCELLENT! N-NOT THAT I HAD ANY DOUBTS AS TO WHERE I WAS AT, GIVEN MY GREATNESS!”

 

“By the way, I don't think I've taught you how to make noodles and pasta filling from scratch,” you asked thoughtfully. “How did you learn to make it?”

 

“I EMAILED OUR FOOD SCIENCE PROFESSOR, DR. ALICE LEVAN!” Papyrus declared like it was the trump card to win a duel rather than a normal date. “I VISITED HER THIS AFTERNOON AND ASKED HER TO SHOW ME HOW TO MAKE SOMETHING SPECIAL THAT YOU WOULDN'T EXPECT.”

 

“Ah, so the element of surprise left out the option of using the cookbook I gave you.” You mused. You thought you couldn't feel any warmer seeing the evidence that Papyrus was improving, and getting closer to his dreams of being a chef but seeing your teacher actually go out of her way to help him... geez. Faith in humanity restored.

 

“YES, BUT SHE DID GIVE ME THE RECIPE AS LONG AS I PROMISED TO USE IT FOR THE GREATER GOOD?! WHATEVER THAT MEANS?!!” Papyrus told you, his hand to his chin in confusion. You pretended to think about it for a second.

 

“No.” You laughed as Papyrus NYEH-ed in alarm. “Sorry Dr. Levan, we're gonna take over the world with this ravioli.”

 

“WHAT NO, I MADE A PROMISE!!!” Papyrus yelped. “D-DON'T OR I'LL! I'LL!!!”

 

“Call Dr. Levan?” You suggested challengingly, and then slammed your open hand on the table. “Do it!! I dare you!”

 

“FINE!” Papyrus huffed, “IF IT'S TO STOP YOUR PLANS OF TYRANNY, I WILL!”

 

“Fine!”

 

“FINE!”

 

He pulled out his phone to call, as you cackled and leaned over so you could speak into the speakerphone as well. It began ringing and soon enough you could hear your teacher's voice on the phone.

 

“Hello? Papyrus? Is everything going all right with the date?” Dr. Levan's voice answered.

 

“N-NO KITTY'S TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD WITH THE RAVIOLI RECIPE AND USE IT FOR EVIL!” Papyrus cried out dramatically.

 

“Heyyy!!!... no he's right.” you stuck your tongue out at him. “Tattletale.”

 

“THERE'S NO SUCH THING WHEN THE FATE OF THE WORLD IS AT STAKE!!” Papyrus declared, and Dr. Levan called for a stop through the speaker.

 

“Hold on, before you two go overboard and try to control the world through my own recipe I feel obligated to let you know that you need to take more of my classes next semester. You're going to need all the help you can get.”

 

Papyrus squawked, “WHAT?! NOOO!!! WHAT IS THIS IMPOSSIBLE INFLUENCE YOU EXERT EVEN THROUGH THE PHONE KITTY?!!”

 

“Yesss!” You cheered. “Dr. Alice Levan has been added to the team! We can now recruit her on our adventures!!! Thanks, we'll talk to ya again later for more world conquering lessons! And thanks for the recipe!”

 

“Have fun on your date you two, and your summer vacation. You've earned it. Goodbye, and I'll see you in the fall.” Dr. Levan hung up.

 

“WELL, THAT BACKFIRED.” Papyrus remarked, but the corners of his eyes were turned up from his smile. “NOW IT'S TIME TO TRY YOUR DATE GIFT!”

 

“It's nothing too elaborate, I just took advantage of the fruit around the house and the instant oatmeal to make an apple crisp...” You explained, taking another bite of ravioli from the open container before heading to the fridge. “You really pulled out all the stops for tonight, Puppy.”

 

Papyrus's eyes followed the container curiously, the brown sugar and oatmeal crusted on top of the apples with cinnamon visible on the apple slices underneath. “BUT THAT SOUNDS DELICIOUS!”

 

“I did want to show you something after we eat, 'kay?” You mentioned, quickly opening a drawer for a spatula and a couple of small plates. “I think you'll probably like it.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was plotting... and then I was wading in fluff again. But it felt right, so I decided to keep going with it. One does not simply go straight to executing a plan Flowey makes after all. This week will be a little busy for me, but I've got about half a chapter written already, so hopefully I'll be able to update next week on schedule!


	49. Take Me With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Papyrus continue your date, and Gaster continues the skeleton family tradition of being really freakin' mysterious. Jerk.

When the food was finished and the leftovers were put away, you'd gone back up to your room for you to dig into your luggage from Alphys's apartment. After a few minutes of setting aside some clothes, an extra pillow, a few books and art supplies, you found what you were looking for. “Here!”

 

Papyrus looked over as you held up the white box. You'd reunited the lost piece of the milk puzzle from the hotel during the day before, and organized the pieces again before scrambling them. You were enraged to find that there was one more piece missing, allowing your sense of justice to kindle and burn so that your worries couldn't catch up again. This was not the time for you to behave timidly, your indignation acting in concert with Flowey's calculated ruthlessness would serve you better, if you could bring yourself to ACT. This box was a sobering reminder, but one you weren't going to allow to be tainted by someone trying to get into your head. Instead, you're going to remember who this is for.

 

“This is the puzzle that I drew on. I used a special kind of pigment on this, so no one could read what it says by accident.” You explained, sitting next to him on your bed with a slight smile, your expression carefully controlled to keep your thoughts to yourself. “If you want, you can try figuring out the trick.”

 

“NYEH HEH HEH! IS THAT A CHALLENGE?” Papyrus grinned with anticipation. “BECAUSE THE GREAT PAPYRUS ACCEPTS YOUR CHALLENGE!”

 

“Great.” You leaned in and pressed your lips to his teeth, smiling slyly. “There's a reward in it if you can tell me what it says, 'cool dude'.”

 

“I HOPE YOU'RE PREPARED THEN, BECAUSE I AM A MASTER OF PUZZLES! IT'LL BE SOLVED RIGHT AWAY.” He dumped the pieces on your bed to work on it right there as you laughed. You almost mentioned that it was impossible to solve the puzzle when the sun wasn't out, and caught yourself.

 

“That's good, 'cuz... you mean a lot to me.” You moved to press close to his side handing him the box, and closed your eyes briefly. Even then, you thought you could see his soul, almost like a hologram. Not quite there, but certainly present if you allowed yourself to fall into the SURVEY state.

 

You nearly allowed yourself to fall asleep right there, until Papyrus asked you, “HAVE... YOU BEEN FEELING ALL RIGHT TODAY KITTY? I KNOW THIS MORNING MUST'VE BEEN UNEXPECTED BETWEEN THE ATTACK IN YOUR DREAMS AND THE PLAN WE COULDN'T CARRY OUT AFTER ALL... BUT YOU'VE BEEN...”

 

You remained quiet with your eyes closed, as he tried to think, something in your awareness warning you that he was sensing your wistful longing.

 

He observed that this wasn't like the other times when you were tense, your eyes scanning crowds with a wary alertness or alternatively shutting everything out at once so that it became next to impossible to catch your attention. You were goofing around like it was any other time, despite everything. Wait no, not like any other time... you were actually much closer than usual, almost clinging at times during the date. He could feel your warmth radiating into him, and he thought out loud,

 

“... IT FEELS LIKE A SECOND CONFESSION?”

 

You opened your eyes with surprise, not expecting this conclusion from him. “What kind of confession?”

 

He lit up in a blush, and began fidgeting in place, you readjusting with his movements to stay comfortable. “W-WELL, MAYBE I'M READING TOO MUCH INTO IT... B-BUT!! IT'S LIKE YOU'RE TRYING TO TELL ME HOW MUCH YOU LOVE ...ME?”

 

He finished on such a high note, that you read both embarrassment and uncertainty in his voice. He was also moving too much for you to stay comfortable easily, so you sat up to look him in the eyes. Your date this day... what you were prepared to do.

 

“Don't say that with so much doubt, ya goof.” You told him lightly. “Believe me, who believes in you, right?”

 

With sudden inspiration you called your soul into being, and pushed it to him.

 

“Just hold this for a second.” You wrapped his hands around your soul, and concentrated hard. You could feel your intent manifesting as electrical currents, arcing from the surface and fizzing across his bones as if tracing through the pores and sinking into marrow. Similarly, the electrical current circuited through your skin and passed through veins. Instead of actual static or sensation, the feeling was more of a wash of psychological certainty wrapped in a warm heartbeat. You were focusing so hard on simply transmitting your feelings through touch that you hadn't realized that there was an orange glow pulsing from beneath Papyrus's chest.

 

He looked dazed, flushed, but he was also grabbing your hand to hold it to his chest. “P-PLEASE KITTY...” He seemed to have lost the words to express himself, but you pressed your hand to his sternum and like the circuit had closed you could feel the insurmountable trust course through you along with your feelings. And then his soul materialized completely, right underneath your hand. You could feel the rapid pace of his soul, underneath the orange heart his bones were rattling. You could only feel intense protectiveness radiating in return.

 

“TAKE MY SOUL WITH YOU.”

 

Freezing completely as you comprehended his words, you started with a compulsive head shake that was more of an instinctive reaction to ward off the force of your surprise. However, Papyrus pressed your hand to him harder, taking it as rejection of the idea itself. “WHATEVER THIS FEELING IS, YOU DON'T NEED TO BE ALONE! EVEN IF IT'S JUST INSIDE YOUR DREAMS, I'M HERE FOR YOU!”

 

“N-no wait, Puppy what do you mean take your soul? It's not like you can just go around without your soul with you that long-” You argued, trying to make sense of his request.

 

“IF YOU TAKE MY SOUL INTO YOU, THEN I CAN KEEP YOUR SOUL SAFE WITH ME!” He told you, a hint of desperation in his voice. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you wondered if by trying to reassure him, you had let him glimpse the worry you'd carefully ignored. It was a small voice, lost in the waves of your vision and your magic working in tandem to assessing his reaction. You had to fix this somehow, you couldn't just leave him hanging when he's been doing his best to be there for you too.

 

Slowly, you responded, “So, you want to exchange souls..?”

 

“I WANT TO KEEP YOU SAFE... BUT I ALSO WANT YOU TO FEEL SAFE.” Papyrus's eyes were trained on the indent on your soul, this missing chunk. “YOU WANT THAT TOO.”

 

“Yes. I want us to be safe.” You kept your movements slow and deliberate while drawing his soul back. You would've said that it's just as you remembered, but that wouldn't quite be the truth. The truth was, was that you knew by experience how permeable you were to this core, the center of his being. Last time, you and Papyrus were both taken completely by surprise and had panicked. It was strange to think that now you were about to do the same thing on purpose.

 

“YOU DON'T HAVE TO KITTY, AND THE EFFECT WILL BE DIFFERENT.” Papyrus told you.

 

“I'm curious, have you done something like this with someone else before?” You asked, the thought suddenly occurring to you.

 

“WELL, NOT IN MEMORY, BUT APPARENTLY YOU CAN TRADE SOULS WITH SICK CHILDREN TO MONITOR THEIR HEALTH. SANS MENTIONED I GOT SICK ONCE, SO I ASSUME HE DID SOMETHING SIMILAR.” Papyrus put a hand up to his mandible with thought. “IT IS... WELL, I ASSUME IT'S COMFORTING.”

 

“So it's not quite the same thing as when I absorbed your soul before?” You thought aloud. “Then it's intent that makes the difference?”

 

“YES.”

 

With that, you decided to give it a try. You pressed his soul to your chest, and felt your magic wrap around it. It was no less intense than the first time, but this time rather than your blood heating up and heat blossoming throughout your body, you felt no response other than the sense that his soul was merged with your heartbeat. Then, Papyrus absorbed your soul and it was as if someone flipped the CHECK action permanently on. You could see his HP was still high above his limit, not only had it been artificially elevated by the magic that you'd poured into his birthday cake a couple of days ago, but you'd made certain to pump more magic into the apple crisp. You'd regained back most of it when you ate some of it, but Papyrus still remarked with a frown, “YOU SHOULDN'T BE USING YOUR HP LIKE THIS FOR OUR DATE.”

 

You were still absorbing everything that was going on. Not only could you feel his soul distributing energy throughout your body but your magic was also seeping through... bones, you supposed but frankly Papyrus's body was different from that even. There wasn't a whole lot of mass but it felt like your core was unfurling through what there was, and Papyrus examined his shaking hand with wide eyes, “W-WOWIE!”

 

Shocking you both, a light purple crystalline shield flared up from the fingertips of his phalanges and hardening in front of you both. You placed your hand to it, the magic sticky to your touch rather than solid, and Papyrus pushed through it to wrap his hand around yours as the magic melted away in the air. He squeezed and stared at you expectantly. Hesitantly, you drew on his magic, and pulled the flow to your open hand. It didn't do anything at first, reflecting your uncertainty, but Papyrus squeezed your hand again. A burst of inspiration danced like fireworks in your mind to trace the dimensions of bone and magic construction, and without further ado the magic hardened into a bone attack.

 

“I finally formed an attack.” You said numbly. “But, it's borrowed magic...”

 

“THAT DOESN'T MATTER! YOU FINALLY DID IT!” Papyrus cheered. You bopped him with the bone construct with a mischievous grin, and let it dissipate. He tackled you in return, scattering the pieces of the puzzle.

 

“H-hey watch out or we'll lose more pieces!”

 

~

 

You woke up from your doze easily, your magic calling to you. Sitting up as well as you could with Papyrus wrapped around you, you focused on extracting your soul and exchanging it for his. The doubled feeling faded off, like a limb fell asleep, but you had enough time to get used to it. With your magic fully intact and coursing through you once more, you were able to access your dreams and face what was coming. His relaxed expression drawing into a frown in his sleep, Papyrus pulled you in closer.

 

~

 

“So, it's finally happening.” Gaster stated, when you finally drifted into your dream. Despite Sans's warning, you weren't really going to try to ignore him or anything. All he really told you was to stop training and that was going to be easy enough when you were spending your night picking out Frisk from an actual city. You sat up in the lavender field, a tad relieved to be surrounded by the flowers and not barren earth. However, your body was in the form of a cat again, your gray paws keeping you low to the ground so that the stalks of lavender tickled at your face by brushing past your whiskers.

 

“Nothing's happening, so I have to make something happen.” You refuted, remaining sitting and closing your eyes. You couldn't lose focus by getting distracted by the elements of the dream. “I'm going to try and look for Frisk again, but this time I won't stop until I find them.”

 

Gaster nodded slowly, lacing a pair of hands together down low in a relaxed position. “You may find that your search will be more successful here than that beach town.”

 

“Why do I get the impression you've always known what's going on?” You muttered, peeking out of one eye to watch his reaction. He didn't move, simply hovering and watching your progress, or lack thereof. You were far too interested in deciphering what was going on between Sans and Gaster to fall under just yet.

 

“Simply because I'm always watching.” He responded mystically. You weren't entirely pleased with that. Watching... how? Through your dreams? Why not warn you in advance this whole thing was going to happen and save everyone some heartache? Maybe he meant that he was watching through your eyes... as strange as that would be, if he existed in your dreams than maybe it was like a gateway into the real world.

 

As you were musing hard on this, he picked you up and you startled in his detached hands. He added softly as if he was soothing an animal, “This will pass. It won't happen easily, but with a little DETERMINATION it will.”

 

“What about your relationship with Sans? I'm getting really tired of being stuck in the middle of you two.” You sighed at the pained look that crossed his face, your magic binding his face together glowing temporarily as the pieces threatened to push together and overlap out of place. “Never mind, you can answer that later. Finding a single child in a city is going to take all night.”

 

You twisted through his hands to jump away and concentrated as hard as you could before the enigma that was your mentor could drive you to total distraction. With the sensation of falling through the earth, almost causing you to panic out of it, you fell back into SURVEY. Your room was lighter than before, more grey than black given the radiant light pulsing out from both Scoob and Papyrus. Your window, lighter still, drew you over and you gazed over the city.

 

Like a beacon, there it was. Pulsing red light over the other colors of souls in the area, you wondered why you couldn't sense it at all previously. There was something strange going on, and you dropped out of the window to land with no true sensation of gravity despite the fall. Slipping out of your garden gate to dash out into your neighborhood, you checked to see if you could still follow the red glow. You couldn't see anything very well at first, but as you moved around the tall houses the red hue slowly became more visible in flashes. It wasn't much to go on, but surrounded by sleeping souls it was probably much more than you could ever hope for. You pushed on, running as quickly as you could as you wished on the souls surrounding you like stars in the sky, that you weren't running straight into a trap.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dunno why, but I've been tired the last couple of days and hadn't edited this on the schedule that I wanted to. At least it's here now!  
> *Alternative chapter titles include "Just Fuck Already: the novel" but I figured that's a little cruel considering I'm the one determining the romantic pace of the story.*  
> Next chapter is Swapfell bonus~


	50. Bonus Swapfell Chapter: Spring Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's something familiar about all of this, but you can't quite put your finger to it.

“So what makes you more qualified for the position than anyone else that applied?”

 

“I've spent most of my time in labs in school here. I know the protocols, the safety measures, and I take the use of PPE very seriously. You won't catch me on my phone, putting makeup on in the lab, or running experiments without a lab coat. I'll also read all of the scientific literature on my own time and catch up quickly.”

 

You answered nervously, just happy that you didn't stutter over your words but at the same time the monster sitting across from you didn't seem too terribly impressed. Both her yellow eyes were boring into you with calculated disinterest, and she's playing with one of the test tubes hooked onto her coat. The liquid sloshing from side to side, fizzing and occasionally popping in such a way that you were certain was never meant to exit a fume hood, let alone the laboratory. You realized halfway in your assessment though, that this probably wasn't a lab head that gave a fuck about safety. Unfortunately, you weren't sure where this left you in terms of appealing for the job and you faltered, not knowing what to say next.

 

You weren't left in your interviewee's paralytic despair for too much longer as the door opened and another monster stepped in, asking your potential-but-not-likely employer, “hey undyne, whose book is this?”

 

A tall skeleton monster with a bored expression and a golden canine tooth was holding a recycled paper notebook, eyelights flickering through the pages before looking up at you and Undyne. He was paging through your sketchbook! You jumped to your feet, alarmed. You were careful to leave the book out on the desk outside the office, trying to maintain a professional appearance- it was full of anime references, quick sketch comics, and other work of similar otaku quality. You figured the interview wasn't going to last long enough for someone to get curious about it, but apparently that was a bet you'd lost. You apologized, holding out a hand to get it back. “O-oh sorry, that's mine.”

 

“ah. well that probably answers one of your obligatory interview questions.” He moved past you to hand the book to Undyne and you swallowed down your protest, feeling yourself pale as Undyne began examining the drawings. Welp, there goes any appearance of professionalism. You redirected your gaze once more to the monster who'd most definitely ignored you on purpose.

 

He wore a dull orange turtleneck under a thick fluffy jacket, making you wonder if he wasn't a little too warm indoors dressed like that. It was during the winter still, but it was warming up quickly. You were only in slacks and a button up shirt indoors, but when you knew you were about to walk in for the interview you'd shrugged on the dress jacket and buttoned it. He made eye contact, and a slight smirk pushed up the corners of his mouth. You were torn between wanting to smile and hope he goes away, and wanting to scowl and hope he goes away. Neither of these options seemed effective for your end goal of getting him far from your job interview, and you were left staring with no goal in mind. His eyes remained on yours, admittedly with a lot more chill than you, his gaze unreadable despite the smirk.

 

A protractor fell out onto the desk with a light clatter, and you jumped in place and looked away to the source of the sound, breaking the awkward stare down. Almost unthinkingly, Undyne picked it up to chew on it, as she scrutinized the pages it fell out inbetween. It crunched between her sharp fangs and you hid a cringe as plastic shards dropped to the table with a delicate clatter. Spitting pieces out in the corner trash bin, she muttered almost to herself, “What's all of this right here?”

 

She laid your sketchbook flat and pointed to the half completed sketch that you'd abandoned halfway to start again on the next page. On the page were a series of Booptube links, angle measurements, eraser smears, and a character arcing in mid air. Half their face wasn't completed, the character was a stick figure from the waist down, the only thing really completed was the skater's costume fitting over them.

 

You answered hesitantly, “A picture of an ice skater. I couldn't get the angle right so I was using the protractor and some videos of real skaters doing a triple salchow to get the specifics down.”

 

“Is this the anime from last winter I keep hearing about?” She demanded.

 

Was your interviewer... an actual otaku? You weren't sure what was happening anymore. “... yes?”

 

“We will watch this in lab as a team bonding exercise. You will bring snacks of an appropriate nature I hope?” She demanded more than asked.

 

You suggested cautiously, “I could bring pork cutlet bowls like in the show?”

 

“Welcome aboa- OH MY GOD WAS I CHEWING ON THIS THE WHOLE TIME?!” Undyne held out her hand only to realize that she was holding the remains of your protractor. “I-I'LL G-GET A NEW ONE, I P-PROMISE!”

 

You felt like you just passed a test. The kind of test that occurs only in the movies where your actual qualifications didn't matter. You glanced out of the corners of your eyes to see that the skeleton had disappeared from where he was before with no warning. Boy howdy, what have you gotten yourself into with this lab?

 

~

 

About a month later, you still didn't know the full extent of madness you'd gotten involved in, each ridiculous event topping the last. It was like the monsters never heard of professional work place behavior. When Undyne wasn't running experiments in AND out of the lab, Papyrus was sleeping on the job. More than once, you've had to reach over to turn off a bunsen burner, or set a timer. It was getting really frustrating, until he woke up midway and grabbed your wrist with a sudden, “gotcha.” causing you to shriek and nearly knock over the solution he was preparing.

 

“What the actual fuck Papyrus?!” You snapped, your heart pumping with much unnecessary adrenaline. Great, now you were going to be shaking the next time you prepared a quadrant streak on an agar plate.

 

“nyeh heh heh, don't tell me i scared you out of your skin?” He responded, still chuckling to himself as you batted at him with a fit of annoyance coupled with heart pounding fear.

 

“No!” You protested automatically, watching the way his chuckling deepened into full bone rattling laughter.

 

“you just batted at me! like a pussy cat!” he crowed, loosening his grip on your wrist to tickle at your hand and you snatched back your hand with a barely restrained sulk. He just continued laughing, “c'mon, that's no claws for offense!”

 

You huffed, more to yourself than at him but you were trying your best not to let yourself be more of a target for his practical jokes more than you already were. You already came to work one day to find that little plants had sprouted in your keyboard, and eyes on your back. You stared at the unexpected sight, trying to figure out what to make of it, before resolving it by dampening some paper towels and dumping the seedlings out. What seedlings were too root bound to heed gravity, you plucked from the keyboard and hoped for the best, dumping the towel of seedlings outside.

 

All of your complaints about their lack of professionalism aside, you weren't doing so hot yourself. Instructions were one thing, they were easy enough to follow, but during lab meetings you struggled to keep up with the lingo they were using. You simply had no clue what any of it was _for_ at any given time. That feeling of being lost and out of your element compounded when Undyne took up the new fun hobby of using you as a guinea pig. At least, you think that's what she was doing.

 

“Hey I need to borrow this for a second-” She'd start, and suddenly you were lurching forward and grabbing the desk as you were struck dizzy with a double awareness, blinking at the glowing writhing lavender heart that'd suddenly appeared between the two of you. “H-hold still, jeez...”

 

It flashed green, and you felt unable to move from place, though you weren't sure why.

 

“Hold up, is this going to keep me from going to classes tomorrow?” You choked out, seeing her prepare to shove a needle into it with typical reckless gusto. She paused, and slowly put the needle down. Daring to speak, mostly with the inkling that your own safety was at stake, you asked “What is that?”

 

You pointed at the green heart just as Papyrus was passing by, and he stopped to glare as Undyne's face lit up. You paled, not sure what you said wrong, and suddenly the heart was yanked out from Undyne's grasp with blue wash and shoved straight back into your chest. “gonna borrow the human for a sec, undyne.”

 

Thus began your first and only sit down discussion with Papyrus about how any and all questions should be directed to him, a lecture that you were quiet and compliant for as Undyne's excited expression left you with all sorts of bad feelings. Why did you take a job with a boss you knew disregarded lab safety?! Seeing you so subdued, he patted your shoulder as he shuffled past you. “chin up kitty, you'll get used to it around here.”

 

You turned to shoot a glare at him but he was gone the second you took your eyes off of him. So freakin' annoying. It was only later that day when you finally got a break from Undyne's stalking, you received a bag of sticky greasy BBQ chicken in a matter of speaking. Truthfully, the experience would be better described as a take out bag being dropped onto your head which splattered onto the table in front of you- honey mesquite BBQ sauce in plastic takeout cups soaking through the paper bag- and a quick burst of laughter before it cut off in the same manner of the television being turned off.

 

You made a face as you felt something warm traveling down your cheek. Bleh, there's some sort of fast food substance dripping down your face. Gross. At least you were getting fed though.

 

~

 

You woke up far too early for having stayed up as late as you have on homework, stumbling out of bed and sat at your desk. You opened your laptop, still warm from when you'd last closed it, a testament to how long you'd actually slept and sat listlessly eating yogurt and checking text messages from Amber.

 

Amber:

-sounds like it's really tough over there. let's go to the arcade for spring break soon, 'kay?

 

You typed back a 'sounds good', before yawning and tapping your laptop monitor with your forehead with an exaggeratedly slow headbutt. Ughhh so tired! There was no way you could muster the energy to make breakfast at this rate even if you needed the energy to survive the day, so getting coffee at the cafe was probably your best bet.

 

The cafe was somewhat busy first thing in the morning, but you showed up early enough to avoid the rush of students, and sat outside sipping away at your drink to just watch passerby. The muffin in your hands was cool to your touch from the display refrigeration unit, cinnamon and brown sugar melting and the taste settling on your tongue as you nibbled on the muffin. A familiar face drew your attention away from people watching.

 

Papyrus was walking across the street from your side of the walkway. He didn't appear to notice you, rather a pale-white cloud of smoke wafted from the vape that he usually carried around. Talking on the phone, you couldn't quite catch what the conversation was about, but he sounded cheerful enough for so early in the morning. Perhaps it was because you were watching him so closely, safe in your background observation that the next thing to catch your gaze was the car across the way missing its license plate. The sounds of an engine starting up rumbled through the air, and dread hit you as certain as an earthquake.

 

Tossing your drink to the side in a rush to race the squeal of tires, you ran as fast as you could, sucking in air as you sprinted into the street to scream, “PAPYRUS WATCH OUT!”

 

You nearly barreled into the taller skeleton monster's back, trying rapidly to calculate how you were going to get both of you out of the way in time when he suddenly flashed out of existence. Without a chance to skid to a stop, you tilted forward with the weight of your inertia, not expecting this development. You fell in time for the car's bumper to slam into your shoulder, chest, and hip, the force carrying you through the air. If it wasn't for the sharp pain racing along your nerves to fill your brain with thunderous swelling resonance of blood pounding, you might've realized that you were flying several yards before your skull cracked across the gravel.

 

Your nerves buzzing, you remained still, afraid of incurring the wrath of your body. Ah... the pain was already fading, so maybe you could sit up. The atmosphere that felt so warm before was now a bit chilly, but maybe it was only your cold sweat coming off of you in oceanic waves. You blinked at the barely registered pressure at your throat, or tried to. There had to be something wrong with your vision, because you couldn't see who had cupped your face even though you could've sworn your eyes were wide open. Already a weakened buzz, the feeling was soon drowned out in total sensory silence.

 

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̨̱̝̭̲̭̩̪̞̲̪ͨ̉ͬ̈̽͑̓̑̾͊͆ͮ͒̐̕  
̉ͩͪͩ҉̨̯̙̦͓̥͈̦̩͚̟̞͎͓̭͕͇͖̙͈*̵̵̡̏ͯ̎̊̅̀ͭ̆̈̚҉̗͖̮͎͍͎͎͕̳͎͇*ͮ̆̑̀̌̇̿͊ͩ̄͗͒̀̀̀̚͜͏̱̟̥͔̰͍̖̳̹̮̬͕͎̤͍̣̝ͅ*̶̱͈̤͇͇̬̣͙̪̫̱͎̦̲͍̯̊̄͑̏̐̊͋͒ͩ͂̌͋ͫ̕ͅ*̡͖̝̩̬̬̗͓̬̟̥̪̳̺͙̬͓̒̒͊ͨͬ͟*̶̖̰̫͍̜̱͕̺̩͕͍̖̻͍̥͙̪̮ͥ͗̊͑ͥ̾́͠*̵̵̧̛͍̝̤̮̠̩̯ͪ̆ͮ̏̒̀̒ͫ͒̒͗̐͆ͫͥ̈́͟*̷̡̂̓̅̆̋͂ͯͫ͐̈́͐ͭͨ́͆͟͏̡͔̩̺̜̟̳̺͕̦͈͖*̧̞͚̭̣̱̠̞̹̠̱͉̘ͭ̄̋̒̈́ͪ̎̊̌̄͘*̴̬̞̫̞͉̋̆̆̓̇ͯ͐̋͑̒ͫͣ͆̅̅͡*̷̛̥͔̩͚̲̣̗͓͍̺͖̣̱͈͙̋͋̉̔̂̈́̄̂͆̽ͯ̈̚̕͜*̵̴̡̻͔̠̞̻̥͋ͨ̂ͭ̈ͥͫ͂̄̂̓ͪ͋̈́̚̚̚͢͠*̽͌̓ͥͧͣ̐͜҉͈̞̲̀͘*̨̨̟̲͚͓̻̳͈̦͕̥̫͙͖͈̬̙̣̼̦̔ͫ̊͂̈́͌ͭ̀ͣ̒̊͟͠*̸̛ͦͤ̓̍̇̋ͤ̾̏́̇̈́̑̄͋ͨ̚҉̵͎̻̺̘̠̪*̶̮̻̯̣͔͓̙̱͇̖̺͈̹͖̠̫͉͇̙ͥ̑̉͆̚͘*͂ͬ̀̿́̈̔̓̄̽̎̓ͬ͗͟͏̷̨̭̭̖̗̕*̧̪͖̜͈̦̼̫̲̰͈̈ͨ͆ͥ̅͠*̞̝̭̰͉͓͎̣̤͕ͦ̽͑͌̂̆ͩ͟͡*̶̥̰̲͇̬̰̞͔̖̥̞͉̩͇̙͍ͣ́̈́͌̄̓̀̔*̺̻̞̥̜̫̗̻̰̅̄͌̇̿̒͒͗͋̚͟͜͞*̻͕̪̞̗ͪ̾ͦ̿̚͟͡͠*̢̢̢̪̺̱̤̰̦̓ͭ̎ͩͫ̈̽ͬ͟͝*̧̡̙̞̫̩̤͔̼̰͗́ͬ͆̈̍̅͡*̧̾ͪ̒̏ͪ̈́̏̾̊͂͒ͦ̈ͧ͗̽̅̚̚͝҉̡͖̠̜̖̗̲͉̭̕ͅ*̶̸͔̮͖͎̥͔͇͕̮̞̣͓͚̖̩̜̼̏͑͛̾̈́̓͌̎̿̔͝*̢̡̧̱̬͈̫͇̦̹͕͕̯ͧͨ͐̒̓̉ͯ́ͣ͋́͘*̻̣̺̘̠̗̦͕̬͓ͩ͌̈͌͌̕͢͝͝*̵͊̋̒̄̉̌ͣ̊ͩ̅̍̆͞͝҉͎͎̻*̯̺̫̯̣̘̭̆ͭ͂̌ͬͫ̈̏̓͆́͠*̵̛̹͉̝̗̼̬̖͙͍̻͙̻̰̭̬̱̥̈́̿̈ͨͮͯ́ͅ*̨̄̋͐ͣ̓̉ͤ͛ͯ̄͐̏̎̊ͦ̂́҉̝̩̜̣̱͇̘̙͚̺̜̯̤͕̲̼͈̕ͅͅ*̴̜̫̥͖̬̐̂̋́̎͗͊̓͞*̨̨̛ͫ͐͊̅͊́̎͒ͨͥ́͋͐̊̈͏͕̖̘*̬̩̞͉̻͓̠͈͐͗̾̾̅͊̓ͥ̔̿͂͌ͬ́ͣͩ͡*͍̗̗̬̯͆͌̉͗̓ͭͣ͂̀̌͐̕*̵̷̩̯͕̼̥̘̅̄ͮ̈́ͭ̓ͭ͋͆͝*̧̢͔̯̣̥̹͓̝̘̲ͯ̍ͯͮ̔̓ͪͯ̈́̏ͯ͂̆́̉͒̊͆̚͝*͛̍̅ͣͪ́͆̿͊̈́̿͋͏̴̶̴̭͚͍̤̲̻̼͖̞͍͇̠̤͇͚̭͕*̵̨͓̜̙͎͓͎̙̬̟͙̻̜̭̳͓̱ͩͦ͒̍̊̔̂̓̂͋͒̆͆̀́̕ͅE̶̛̒͆ͦ̆͑ͥ͂̑͡͏͉͇͉̤̟͔̖͚̬͎̤͓̞̼̜͕̞*̴̧͇̯̯̯̬͔̹̹̣̭̬̪̦̰̱̫̓ͥͫ̎͒ͤͬͨ̊̅̔ͨ̐͛̚͠*̛̤̪͇͖͚̪͓̫͋͆͒̏̆͂̐̅͌̏ͮͭ̕͝͡͠*̴̦̘͔͔̞͕̰̠͈̟̺̦̤͓̈́̆͒̿̓ͦ͛̾ͧ̑͊̄*̶̨̨̟̖̖̯̰͈̞̩̯̺̣̥̊͌́̎ͣ̃͐ͅ*̅͛ͤͤ͒͒͏̷̨̛͍͕͎̟͎̼̬̩̰̯͓̱̪̫̰͍̮̥͜ͅ*̨͕̪̣͉̙͇̤̘̘̝̟͉̤̮̟̬̝ͫ͆ͣ̀ͅ*̨ͥ̋̇̾̀͂̓ͬ́̅͘͡҉̱̯̫̻̲̙̗̞͇*̢̯̬̻̻͓͉͖͍̲̳̥̯̪͚̥̥͎̱̉̌̊̽ͥ̋̇ͅ*̴̷͚͙͙̪̻̝̰̫͙͇̌̒̌ͬͪͤͨ̃͛ͫ̄͊ͧ̂͝*̢̨̡̙̼̣̙̬̩̤̝̼͔̞̪̳̃̑ͫ*̶͓̦̯͍̜͔̗́͛̀͆ͪ͑̈́̽*͋͌ͭͩ̄ͥ͏̡̝̻̱͓̺͉͈̻͖͚͔̗͈͞ͅ*̴̶͙̰̼̖̤̖͍̤̹̲͙̙͍̖͕̬͗ͦ̾ͦͣ̿ͥ̎̿ͧ̓ͣ͊̑̈́ͬ̏͞*̴̶̤̦̼͍͓̼͔̠̯̺͒ͭͭ̎͐̌͊͌͊̏*̢͓̘̣̫̰͕̮͓̍̃̽̓ͨͥ͂ͤ̾͗́͌̍ͯ̚͟*̶̪̣̗̩͓͙̊ͭͯ̉̐ͮ̂ͧ̉̉͘͠͞*̴̸͚̜̦̗̗̥̩̘̭̱̻͈͓̠̦̥͈̩̘̂͑̂ͨ̒̐ͮ͌ͩͮ͗ͧ̾ͯ̾ͤͤ*̴̗̠͎͖̼̰͓̹̬̲̙͎͂ͥ̔͌͊͂͌ͧ̿ͩ̈́ͭ̾̐̏̍̚͡͡ͅ*̧͔̜̤̼̰̹͈̻͂̒͂ͭ͆́̽͒͒̊̏͌̆ͧ̊͛ͭ*̸̷̧̡̦̫͎͕̩̜̬̦̣̠ͨͣ͌̇̓ͫ̊́̑̈́ͣ͒̚̚*̴͂͌ͦ̿̆̉̅̈ͭ͑͋̒ͤ̅̋̍̏҉̹̟̣͉̥̲͙͎̻̖̭̟ͅͅ*̡̡ͧ̇̐ͦ̄̑ͣͮ̇ͫ̃̿͊ͣͪ̏̌͏̙͕̺͙͓͎͔̥͖̗̘*̴̢̝̝͓̜͛ͪ̅̽͂͡*̬̻̻͙̙͕͓̼̙̯̪̦͖͍͚̳̿̄̒͒ͪ͋͊̂ͩͮͨ͢*̴ͬͬ̈́̿̄͒̐ͮͩ̾ͯ͂ͦ̄̊ͧ̿͗̚͜҉̭̖͖*̵̡͖̜̞̭͚͕̬͖̣̠̬̝̜̙̥̦͎̤͐̋̅̿́ͧ̄ͫ̋̓͢͝͞*̶̵̺̼̪͎͎͍͇̻̣̰̮͎͓̖͔͍̯ͣ̈́̇̉ͤ̓̐*̛͇̩̥̲̫̐̄ͮ̃ͫ͟͞*ͯ̓̑̓̎̇̎̓̍̍ͪ̒̽̽́̀̚҉̛̪͙̤̰̠̱͖̱͉͎̪͕̯͔̩̠̘́*̿̿̑ͥ͘҉͜҉̨͉̳̺͕̗̥͕̤͚̘͇͚̪̹̪̺͇*̼̭͍ͯ̾̒ͦͭͧ͆̅͘*̵͋͑̎̆ͯͭͮ͘͞҉̺̖̳̗͙̲͉͕̻͇͎͎̼̮̣̼̫͈͢*̸̸̛̐̈̅ͧ̐̍̆ͩͩͣͯ̐ͯͨ̾̈́ͣ͂̚͏̟̜͚͎̗̘̹̦̭̱͚̺͙̝ͅ*̈̈́͊ͭ͂̽ͯ͏̷̡̪̹̭͖̜̟̪̟̩̤̦͢ͅ*̥̹̺̣͚̪̦̍̄ͤ̍̍̚͜*̵̔̋ͩͯ̈́̂̅̈̋͋̑͗ͯ҉͙̲̞͠͞*̸̡͔̭̾̊̈͛͢ͅ*͊̋̏ͥ̔́ͧ̉̀҉̜̲͔͔̼̣̝̲̥̣̬͚̥̠̹̀ͅͅͅͅ*̷̸̨̧̺͇̮̼̜̟̼͔͔͖̱͔͚̝̪̻̤̥͛͐͋͊ͮ͌ͦ̔̈̇ͤ̅ͥͦ̿ͧ̕*̸̷̼̟̮̞̺́ͪ̽̌͆͋͗ͫ̆ͫ̇̂ͣͣ̀͜*̸̱̳̳͖̤̮̭̌ͬͤ͊͋̔͑́͢͢*̧̨̛͕̦̯̣ͯ̒ͨ̉ͪ̇͗̽ͫ̎̚͠ͅ*ͧ̄̀ͬ̑͑͌̔̑͛̓̽ͥ͛̑̿ͬ̆͏̢̻̣̗̺̤̱̼̜͉͇͚̦͜͞*̻̘͓͒̎̏̅ͦ̊́͂̈͑ͦͣ̿ͣ̓́͠ͅ*̧̪̺̙͈̅̈̒͑͊̀ͮ̎̌̏́͠*ͧ̐̎̽ͣ̅̽ͬ̕҉̡̤͉̩̯̥̥̹̲̖̳̪̩͝*̴̷̻̘̣̩̮͓̗͇̮̜͍̱͆ͭ͋́͢*̡̤̩̜͚̥̱̝̲̈ͫ͑ͦͪ̇͢͝*̵̥͈̮ͣ̎̆̿̏̿̒ͩ̽̊̈́ͬͫͭ̄͜͢*̸̫̞̩̠̪̙̗͊͐ͣ̑ͤ͋͐̀͟͝*ͬ̇͑ͨ̏ͥͨ̒̽̐ͩ̇̎̍̍̾̄ͪ̀͏͉̝̫̱̖̹̀*̶̧͂ͧ͑́͐̑̓͑̈͗̋̐̓͛҉̡̠͓̩̫*̤̦̞̬̤̬̼͇̣̥̞̣͇͈̇̄͋͛͗̍̑̇̂͗̓ͣ̂̄͑̊̀*̶̢̜͓̥̗̊ͤ͆̅̉͐̈́̑̅̍ͣͨͫ̂͡͡ͅ*̧͉͍͙͔̅̀́ͨͯͧ̚͘͜͞*̴͙̺̭͕̠̥̬̖͍͚̩̠͔̘͙͓̱͖̑́̄́͞*̦̳̪̫̘͔̺̩̪̥̺̮̞͔ͭ̑ͭ͂͆̋͌̌͒ͨ̑̅͛̾̚͜ͅ*̧̑͌ͣ͒͂͗ͮ̏ͥͪ̃͌҉͕̰̳̮̥͚̗̳͈̥̬*̢̟̜̖̬̬̠̮̰̫̳̰̭͓̙͉͋͌͑ͪ́͐ͥͧ̈́͟͠*̷̢̛̩̤͓̳̱̱͚͓͐ͭͨ͘*̲̪̳͇̠͕̭̩̗̥̜̋̓͌͌̔̏̏́͢*̛̰̲̼̲͈̳̖͂̈́̽̈́̈ͣ́͞*͈̞͕̖̻̜̣͉̯̃̾ͮ̒͛̇͛̓̄͊ͥ͌̇͒͛̇̚͘͞͠*̢̧̳̝̫̣͖̹̟̹̺͇̱̭̬̤̲͉̺̈̏͗̕͢*̨̛̰͙̱̟̭̖͎̣̙͚̠̘͔̥̌ͧ̍͒͌̾̈́͐̓̚͟*̷̱̩̭̱̪̜̗͓̜̣̘̘̫̺̯̅̿̅̊̀͆̚͟*̭̖͓̞̖̹̻͙̄ͩ̇̄̓̌̈́ͨ͒̀ͬ̉͘̕͘*̴̡̛̟͚͚̳̮̜̪̹̣̊͂ͦͤ̿͆ͨ̓ͨ*̸̴̨̟͇̺̬̘̥̟̪̘̲̻͇̈̑ͯ̌ͭͪ̓͑̈́̌ͦ̂ͮ̒͂ͤ̚*̴̹̠̱͖̝͈̮̠̮̺̥͙̞͈̳͕͇̱̽̅ͦͥ̿̄̌͊ͤ̌̓͂̊͛̂̚͟͟͡ͅ*̴̛͎̙͇̙̥͙̜̱̫͖͑͌̅̈́̿͗̌̈̃ͩ̂͛̉̊̃͟͠*̷̦͓̯͇͈̯ͮ͋̽̉͐ͪ̀́͡*̖̤͙͔̳̽̎ͮͩͤͯ̾ͦͬ̽̃ͪ̓͜*̻͇̼̝̔̒̾͑ͫ̒̂̂͌̍͒̉́̕ͅ*̥̣̼̗̙͉̻̘̻̼̦̲̦͎̫̪̻̤ͪ̃ͫͪͦ̂ͧ̑̔̄ͯ͆ͮ͆͊͞*̷̸̦͕̥̹͚̥͎͙͈̗͓̬͙͔͚̥̮̳͛̐̅ͣ͊ͤ̽͆ͧ̾̾̚*̊ͥͥ̒̆̐ͫ͊ͭ̂̓̌̚̚͏̶́҉̝̺͔̱̟͚͉̣̗̜̼́*̪̳͔̱͍̈́͌̓ͩ͊̓ͤͮͫ͂̚̕͟͠*̷̙͚̥̲̟̤̫̟̠̣̠͕̝̊̄ͦͬ͗͆̊̚͢͝ͅ*̸͍̦̠̜̦̗̝͚̤̞ͮ͊̔͛̄ͦ̆͂͗ͣͬͪ̚͢͠*ͭ͊ͦ͒̈̽̀ͨ̚̚͏̶̷̗̼̜̥͚̙̹̞̳̻͔̬̫͎͠ͅ*̶̨͖̦̙̭̟̰̮͉̰̥̭͙̠̞̝̗̏̓̈̀̅ͥͭ͘͝͞*̒͗̽̓̌ͮ͂ͬ͡͏̶̵̸͇̼̥͓̲̗͕*̸͈̲͇̙̬̪̗̼̬̩̬̹̳ͭ͛ͪ̅̒͗̔ͣ̊̕͟͡ͅͅ*̢ͤͤ͌̉̽̔ͯ̃ͣ̒̎͏̴̨͖̟͇̜̲͉͇͉̲͍̱͓̪͞*̘̩̞̙̭̲͈̯̱̥͓̥̥̘͖̂ͤ̉ͬ͌́͒̾̓ͮ̆ͥ͊͟͡͝*̷̸̺̝͚̤̲̼̭̻̖ͫͥ͛ͬͫͥ̎͛̎̊͗̀*̴̼͈̲̩̙̘͉̼ͪ̍̆̊͌͛̓̓̈́̓ͫ̔̐̂̋ͮ͜͠*̨͑̂͛̈͆ͯ͒͌̐ͭ̏ͭ̽͗̓͟͡҉̲̯̯͔̜͍̯̲̳̞͇͈*̷̪̬̼̳͔̙͇̰͇̃̌̍ͥ͑̈́ͬͬ̄̊̂̏̒́*̶̷̧̧̰̲̯͇͕̲͎̤͓̼͂̈́̉̍̔ͤ̇͋́*̶̯̲̯͈̣͒̐ͯͩ́*̛̫̬̖̗̠̯̤͉̮̠̬͍͇ͨͭͭ̎͋̚͡*̨̧͕͙̗̣̘̥̪̝̥͆ͨ̒ͫ̈́̆̈̾ͅ*̢̛̭͈͍͓̞̐ͤͭ́̔̄̂͌ͦ̄͒͗ͪ̋ͧ̚̕ͅ*͊̒̌̃̓ͥ̚͡҉̗̝̲̰͎̭͔͖̫̻͈̘̫̮̯*̢͈̘̝͓̫̣̖̯̺̞̼̯̥̯̜͂̋̎̓ͫ̂̅̍͆͗ͩ̚͘͞*̛͉̪̤̲͈̖͙͉̜͉͔̃ͮ̍ͫͥ͂͗ͭ̚͝*̢̡̜͕̹̲͔͎̳̭̼͇͋ͮͧ̀ͫ̒ͪ͊ͯ͐ͫ̇͋͂̓͆͛̚͜͡ͅ*̷͔͇̖͙̦̬̙̗̦̤̱̯̪̒̇̾ͧ͆̆̓̄̂̄̓̿ͥͪ͆͢*̱͖͕̻̺͓̻̻̯͋̌̿̈́̽̒̃̓͘͢*̶̟̼̘̒͂ͮ͛̓̓ͩ͐̈́͗͞*̵̂̆͐̏̓ͮ̇ͯ̐̽̃ͪͪ̆̕͠҉̫̭͉̦̦*̵̴̘̯̲̱͈̣̪̳̹̝̗̬͎͉̪̯̐ͫͤ͒̊͑̀̍̑́͑̇͗̋͠*͗͗ͬ̌̍̿̽͏̵̗̜͓͇̗͍̹̪͙͍̬̻̳̺*̸͎͇͖̥̪̘̪̰̤̳̎̈̌͊͌̌̀ͣ̌̊ͬ͑͛̌̉̚͢͠͞͞ͅ*̴ͥ̃̒̄̉ͪ̐̆̋ͩ͏̛͍̣̙̦̹̩̰̙͇̲̹̣̣̤͍̠́ͅͅͅ*̸̷̫͉̲̻̘̹͖͓̣̪͚͙̃͐͒ͮ̔̑̓͐͋̈̌̈͑ͫͭ́͋͂͘͡*ͪ̽ͧ̃̊̽̾̑̌ͥͤͤͭ͊̊̐͋̚̚҉̶͢҉̲̟̞̯̤̟̮̮̣̘͟*̸̧̘̬̱̪̗͈̖̼͓͓ͥͭͨ̓ͮͯ̈́*̧̡̻̪̘̹̤̟̻̪̰̹̦̣̝̭̮̮͍͛ͩͬͫ̓̋̐ͧͣͪ̈́ͫ̏ͬͥ̾͜͜ͅ*̴̱̩̬̗̭͓̲̹̮̦̰̏ͥ̽̔͂̒̊͂͠*̵̧̡̤͕̤̲͈̠̤͎͈̠̙̜͕̞̬̈́́͒̔͛ͫ͊̔ͩ̏̎̎͌̒ͧͭ͘ͅ*̨̘̜̙͕̘͈͂͋ͮͫ̐̅̑̃̽͂ͭ͒ͭ̏̌͒̅̂̀͟͞ͅ*̒ͧ͑ͮ̔ͪ̚҉̴̴̥̜̥̬̺͕̫͉̝͓*ͤ̓̅͐ͮ̌̑̈͌̆͞͏͍͎͔̣͈̩̣̫̟̪̜̰̣̺̥̠͎́*̸̀͛ͧ̂ͪ͞҉̗̫͖͇͎͚̪̦͙͚͜*̡͔̙̜͓͚̜̙̫̮̼͇͓̜̆̃͗ͣ̈̔͐͌̾̈͐̑́̚͘  
̢̧̖͈̖̹̘͔̖̮̗͈̘͈̫̜̤̣̤̟ͤ̀͒ͭ͑̉̀̀͝  
̶̷̧̤̲̘̰̜̱̟̰̤̹̘̞̟ͭ͌͒͊̊͌͛̅͒͐͋̃̿́͟ͅ*̵̞͎͙̜͉̜͎͍̱̱̻̠̟̹ͬ̐̓̄͗͆̔̓́ͅͅ*̪͕̰͕̭̮͎ͭͭ̈́ͯͥͤ̌͜͞*̢͂͊͂́͂̂ͧͬ͋͐ͥͪ͂ͮ̕҉̢͕̖͔̗͞*̴̵̢̡̯͈̳̳̥̮͚̓͋͒ͭ̋ͦͩ͒̊͒̊̎ͮ̇̆̓ͪͣͧ͞*̔̾̃͑̈́͐̌̔͑ͧ̐ͯ̈̅̀҉̛̗̗̮͕͎̪͈͈͓̩̦͖̲̝*̴̶͊ͯ̆ͩͩ̋ͧ̈́̌̂̇̚͏̡̩̣͚̼̭̗͇͞*̡̬̺̮̮͉̘̹̘̘͓͔͇̬̠̅̅ͬͦ̇͆̑ͩ͗ͮ̀ͪͮͤͥ̋͗͟͞͞ͅͅ*̸̷̫͔̼͓̮͕̤͕͎̖͙̺̺ͯ̈̓̏̒͂̑ͬ̐͡ͅ*ͭͩ̀̀ͨ͂͆̆̊̒ͮ͒ͣ͟͏̡̬̝̦͈̖̣͓͈̰̠̳͈̪͙̥̗͇̯ͅ*̏̍̀͂̾ͫ҉̢̛̝̤̲̝̰̟̜̬͔̠̺͓̘͜͝ͅ*͚̬̣̪̫̲̱͎͚̟̃ͧ̈́̂ͤ̇̂̕͟*̴̴ͩ̑̽̅̃̎̎ͪ̓̽̓ͧ̾̀̓̓̏̾ͨ̕҉҉̝̭̬͚̝̰̭̜̬͈̤̼̬͕͇͎̮̫̜*̆̓ͭ͊͗ͭ̂͌͆͒̔̊̓ͪ̅ͮ̚҉̸̡̝̲͓̬̭̲͓̪̥̟̲̹̠̦͚͍͓̕͜*̧̢͖̬̘͇͉̫́ͫ̉̾ͧ̔͒̈́́́́͝ͅ*̶̷̳̙͙̻̜͙͕̭̖̮̖͚̪̗̹͈̦͗̈͋ͥ̈́ͩ͐͌͛ͪ̓̓̚̕*̧̼͙̳̼̠̼͙͙͚͙̱̬̋ͧ̍ͭ̈̎̿͌ͯͧ͋̒́ͦ̾ͫ͆͜͢*̡̢̛̮͙̲̪̋ͣ̊̆̎͆́̃̿ͯ̀*̵̴̫͓̮̻̬͎̜̋̓͆̓̍̔̄̕͠*̶̛̻̹̩̗͇ͯ͂ͯ̃͐ͮͩ̐ͭ̑ͦ͋͢*͗ͣͩͨ͏̴̧͙̯̼̖͓͉̘͇̯͡*̢͍̠͕̮̳̱̦̥̠͙̙͎̞̺̲ͫ̄̈̈́̌̒̏̂͛̀̌ͦͦ̍̒ͤ̎ͥ̚͘͡*̷̨͎̜̟͇̟͖͈ͦͤ͐͊́̀͝*̶̰͖̪͒̄̐̂̾ͭ̔͞͡͞*̵ͪ̄̽̀͐̊̓̎̓̃̿̾̈́ͯ͐̄҉͙͍̟̭̥̟͎̳̤̺̞͕̪̣*̴͓̼̫̗͉̭͒̃͒ͫ̾̑̄̆̍͆́̌͊̉̓̔ͫͨͨ*͙̺͚͎̯̲̼̫̝̬̮̯̜̬̒̈̏̒ͩ͢͝*̷̙͓̺͎̠̣̞͓̘̉ͬ̃ͪ̕͟*̸̷̯̰̥̜͖̮̘͚̖̯̠͔̲̲͔͔̱ͭ̾ͣ̂̆̏͛ͬ̍ͧ*̴̯͖͔̺̥͔͍͔͔͉̮̹̭͍̯̋ͮ̾ͧͮ̒̊̔̎̈ͥͭ͆̑̂ͤͣͪ́̚*̴̢̧̪̣̞̥͕͈̈́͒ͨ̾ͥ͐̂̀͜͡*̥̦̭͖͕̫̗̠͕̰̝̘̙̬͕̍ͮ͊̿̇̒̐ͧ̽̌͗͂ͫ̇̚̚͘̕͡͠ͅ*̃ͣͭ̇̏̽̎̍҉̶͝͞͏͖̼̯͚̟̩̥͕̪͉̬̞̝̥̝͖̝̲*̡͇̙͙̜͔̞̻̦̲͖̪̪̻̠͔̯͑ͫ̓̽ͨͮͫͤ́̚͢͝*̡̙̺̙͕̥͖̖ͣͭ̓ͣ̃ͥ̌̒̊̅̓̏ͧ̑ͬ͊̚͟*̸͖͍͍̄̎ͦ̀ͤ͆̂́̕*̬̹̙̬̺̖̱̘͚̳͌̆̎͐̇̀́͞*̡̡̳͚̞͈̮̹̮͉̘̱͍̼͖̗͕͚̰͑́ͫ̇ͯ̿ͧͫ̈́ͭ̽̅̽͑̀͂͛͑̔͝͞*̧̓̌ͨ̇ͦͤ̉̎͌́ͩ̚҉̝̝̹̳̰̭̮̻̯̮͖̰̟̟͕̪̘ͅ*̧̢̛͔͙͈͕͔̬̜͙̹͍̱͙̱̝̺̩̳̜ͫ͊̒ͤ͞͡*̵̧̥͓̟̖͍͈̈̋͂ͦ͛̐́̐̓ͯ̓ͯ̉ͬͧ̚*̶̻͓̣̺̟̆̑ͮͦ̓ͯ͊ͧ̒̍ͣ̅̄̚͞͝*̊͌̆̆̒̇͊̀͘҉̸̻̦̠͎̹̺̀*̛̹͎̙̬̺̘͍͎̝̜͎̪̙ͥ̐ͣͫͮͨ͑̎ͪ̓ͬ͘ͅ*ͦ̓ͦͥ́̓̈́̽̓ͫ̄̏͆͘҉̷̡̠̝̳̥͔͎̳͉̯̹̩̭̟̤͕̀ͅ*̵̶͒̿̌̈͆͐͐̉̓ͩ͛̏̊ͥ̚͜͠҉̭̤͉̥͍̪̝̲͈̹̩̰̣ͅ*̵̷̛̝͔̠͎̮̫͉̤̲̮̠̒ͧ̉̇̌ͪͅ*̶̶̥̘̟̗̻̤̦̣͔̗̜̰ͦ͐ͥ͐͌̀͢͞*̖̞̘̞̻̻̩̯͂͛͐̔͋̌̌ͯ̾̈͋͟͡ͅ*̴̬̯̺̖̝͇̩̜̼͓͙̺͉͖̥̲̃ͧ̓͗̽̓̇͋ͭ̋̊͞͠*̶̵̥̞̳͚̱͇ͬ̀̅̾ͮ͒ͦͫͮ̈͛ͅ*̱͕̻̘̪͍͔̞̆̾̐ͥ̇͠ͅ*̢̛̙̹͓̼̞̟̱̩͚̳̦̰̟̉̋́̏̾ͩ̿̄ͭ̏͒̌͢*̶̬̗̬͙͓̠̟̬̺̬͖ͫ̋́ͭ͒́͌̃͗͑̉̃̎̅͆̔̇̚͜͟*̵̦͉͓͔̦̺͓̩̩̗̲̳͙̬͕̼͈̻̊̈́̍̾ͩ̆̃̇̓̆͛ͬͬ̈̈́ͨ̄͘͟͜͡*̵̶̡̡̰͔͙̟͔̘̟͍͙̭͔ͦ̔ͯ̅́̔ͬ̍ͩͧ͝ͅ*̨̛̰̠̫̗̗̝͓̠̠͉͔̬̩̫̮̥̤̭͌͆ͫ́ͧ̃̄͒ͨͫͪͮ͌̅ͯͧ̌̚͟*̒̌̍̐ͥ̓̽ͪ͂̅͒̓ͬ̈́͏̪̫̺̜̳̥̖͍͕̺̮̼͍*̛̮̪̦̖͙̟̫̫͙̩̳̮̗̙̟̬̲̘̂̃̍̑̽ͩ͢ͅ*̷̖͕͚̟̰͚̺̤͎͉̰̱͉̯̜͆ͫ̈̍͗̕͘͟*̷̢̣̰̰̹͔̯̹̤̩̖ͤ͊ͩͬ̀̿͂ͪ̽ͨ͠͝*̷̵̛̲͖̲̻̙͉͉̯̗̅ͯ͌̽ͦ̀̄̽͛̇̚*̨̨̧̄̓͌ͨͭ͋ͦ̑ͪͦ͏̢̭̞̮̖̤̻̦̝̘̮S̴̶̨̖̭͍̜̘̹̖̀ͩͧͩ͐ͥ̓ͥ͑͐̌͢*̺͎̮͕̘̞̙̗̞̠̲͇̮̑̓̏̎͋͐̓̓͘͝*̻̮̼͎̗̲ͫͯͩͣ̒ͥ̐͑̿̚͟*̥̭͈̦͓̜̟̺̣̘̲̩̼͈̳ͤ̾́̋̉͗ͮ̄̇̔̐ͭ̅ͩ́̀͘ͅ*̴̗̰͙̻͈̙̝̬̩̖͖͇̖͔ͪ̾͛̏ͧͮ̈́ͫ̐ͥͤ͊͟͝*̴̷̨̘̟̭̠͕̱̲̻̻͚̦̲̹͉̱̿̐ͮ̓̄̆̎ͨ́ͦ͋͒ͧͤͭ̽ͦ̏͠*̷̉̏ͬ̋͐͑̓ͥ̚͏̩̥̬̫̼̩̝*̶̸̣͓͙̯̳̮̖̠̀̃ͬ̋̽̀̄ͅ*̢ͨ̆̐͌͌̇ͯ̾̑͟͏̞̱͚̰͙̹̼̙̳̝̙̬̰̣*̷̧͇̳͉̪͕̲̿̍ͧ̿̄ͧ̄̔̐̓͆ͩ̐ͪ͂́͆̃ͤ̀͜͠*ͦͥ̿̈́̄ͪͦ̕͠҉̵͓̯͚̼̠͙͓͇͙͇̳̙̺̮̱̭̯̖͝*̸̸̵͓͓̤̟̗͈̤̜̻͓̟̒̂̎̏̑͗ͣ͑͛̔̒̓̊̚*̵̹̬͇͍͎̼̤͚̰̠̓̅͐̓̄ͫͪ̽ͤ̔̈̾ͩ͋̀*̵͚̺͇͙̭̬ͩͫͥ̍͑͒̽̉ͨ͠*̴̃ͥ͆̿̅ͬ̍̅ͤ͑̅̒̅̔͜҉̣͚̩̯̥̹͉̰͚̲͉̜̟̗͈̜͞*̷̵̨ͦ̋ͮ͐͋̾͆ͦ̇̋ͪ̓̐͊ͥ҉̜̘̟͈̜͙̹̹̞̝̝̥̘̗͉̻̮͠ͅ*̸͓̞͈̾́ͣ̃̓̇ͭ̐̏͂̓ͩ̀̀͘ͅ*̢̅̇̒̒͠҉̷͔̠̮͓̤͙̜̼̭̬̱̤̼͚̥*̗̝͓̞͉̭̞͖͇͎͓̪̟͇͓͂̒͌̄̈́̏̎̀̅̇̊̀̚͡ͅ*̷̴̧͓̮̖͚̫̼̘̣̺̱̟͉͎͉͍̺̩ͮ̆̊ͦ̋ͬͦͯ̎ͥ̆̿ͬͧ̋̚͟*͂̉ͫ̌̾́̽ͧ̔ͮ̾̔ͪ̂̍͏̥͇̠̝͓̱͇̜̖̹́͘*̢̤͔̣̯̩̼̘̳̫͕͕̪̗̝̪̈́͊ͧͣ̍͒ͪͥ̕͡͠*̴̡͓͍̲̦̦̱̝̥̫͎͖̝̖̦̪̬͖̓ͦ͒͊ͧ̅̀̏̒͆̓ͤͩ̑̒͠ͅ*̧̲̯̝̜̤̣̖͍̖ͫ́͒̄̌́͑ͬ͆̎͘͟͝͝*̷̟̰̮͔̦͓̬̖ͭ͊ͧͣ͐͒ͤ̓̊̊ͦ̔̍͋̓ͯ͞ͅͅ*̴̥̠̭̘̻̜͉̘͕̺̯͖͚̼̤̦͚͌̽ͦ̍͂ͭ̒̾̊̂͛̀͊͝*̸̥̖̥͎̗͓̭̜̼̳̞̜͚̱̹ͪ̊̾ͫ͋͆́̾̅ͧ̐̍͜ͅ*̣̩͙͚͗̈́̏ͮͪ̇͆̓̔̽͘͟ͅ*͎͙̰̼̹̰̟͚̼̝̳̤̄͑͐͒̆ͨ͗͛͂̏ͨ͐̔͠ͅ*̵̡͙̭͖̜̙̺̖͇̦̹̰͓͇͓̉ͪͮ͛̾*̶̮̬̲̤͚̼̼ͦ͐ͮ̾͌ͧ̑ͤ́̚̕*̢̮̤̭̺̦͈̠̠̤̭̝͉̜̓͗̒ͯ̾̑̂̓ͦ͗ͥ̇͊̐͆̃̾ͫ̕͝͠*̮̖̟̘͎̭̟͍͓̫̗̘̜̣̯̈́̅̽̏͌̔͑̋̿͐̎ͬ̔́͢*ͦͭͩͯ̋̆̓̓͛ͬͧͪͣͣ҉̵̟͙̬̣͕̮̦͇͖̦̹̘͍͇̘*̞̙͎̪̣̮̼͎̠̈́̾̈ͧ̐́*̸ͩ̍ͫ͒̈́̆ͮͨ̓҉̧̦͕̝̤̩̠̻̰̱̲̱̬̭̝͈̦͟*̴̙͍͖̭̥̦͍̰̼͓͑͑̓̊̊ͯ̍͢͠ͅ*̡̬̝̭̫̪̤̗̪̬̌̃͒͋̀͑̎̓̚*̶̢̣͍̮̺̯̱̱̐̉ͧ̚͡*̢̣̠̩͙͇̬͚͍̹͓̙̭̞̆̅̃̒̈ͥͧ͐ͫ͢͟͡ͅ*̶̠̟̼̪̠͓͉̫̹̦͓͓͓̥̊̌ͧ̍̽ͣͨ̐̾̍̄̓͞*̬͖̤̼̭̺͚̜̟̘̪̫͈̖̮̩̝̘͊ͪͧͦ̊́̀ͅ*̧̺̠̯̰̼̻̟̯͉͉͈͙͓̰̖̹̇̐ͫ͒́̐̾̄͟͝͞ͅ*̴̛̮̗̻̩̖̘̳͎͕̈̒ͬͮͭ̐̔̿̒ͤ̐̋͊̅̿̀͞͡*̛̾͋̐ͩ̃́ͭ҉̛̳͓͉̱̩̳̳̱̰̪̫̤͕ͅ*̷̵̨̥̮̠̠̘̬͉ͭ̀̓̏̍͌̾̀ͥͯ̑ͤ́*̵͙̪̘̘̞̱̙͎̳̖͉̲̯ͩ̍̐̅̏ͪͦ̎ͨ̀̊ͧͥͩ̂̅ͅ*̷̢͖̱͔͔̱̔̈́̌̉̍̃̇͊̌̾͌̊͗͋̀͝*̵̞̥̰̮͇̝̺͉ͮ̾͐̔̿͒͒̃́̍͊͂͞͝*̴̧͍͎̮͙͍̫̥̞̤̥̱́͌̒̑ͮͥ̽̀̾͂̋̑͑́́͢*̶̞̰͎̼̹͈̹͕̖̟̫̖̪̈́͑ͨͮ͌̎̍ͣ̎͛̽̾ͨ̅͆̽́*̩͇̪̍̔͒̆͂͐̾̆ͮͮ͗̏ͤ́͞͡͝*͒̾͗̄̇҉̸͙͕̹̝̰̕͠*̸̧̥̩͉̩͚͈̍̆́̏ͩͧ͛́̈́̃̀͘*̗͓͎̘̜̞̼̥̺͑ͣ̀͂̈́͑̋ͥ͗̌̄̊͝*͛ͭ͌ͣͦ̆̎ͨ̈́ͯ̃̉͋ͫ̋ͦ̐͏̖̝̹̺̘̭̮̬̣̻̜͉̳̣̲̲͙͠͡ͅ*̡̡ͭ̿̏̏̓͒͛͠҉̨̥̤̲̺̮͍̬̰̦̻̹̫̤̝̜*̸̬̖͈̣͖̻̜̺͖̖͔̏̂͒͑ͧͣ͊̋ͦ̑̐͗́ͦ̚͢͜ͅ*̱̙̼̱̪̞͚̞̦͉̥̫̠̫͍̤͙͇̝ͮ̔͋̆͋ͥ͝*̶̨͕͍̦͓͍͈̩̜͆ͣͧ͐̃͂ͣ͋̾ͣ̿͑͋ͦ͜ͅ*̴͍͚̙̗̪̬̭͔͈̲ͣ̍ͩ̽̑ͣ̃ͤ̋ͤ̏ͬ̈́ͯ̍̀̚͜͞*̔̏̏̄͗̂̎͋ͥ̆͑̓́̓̎͏̛̜͈͇͉̣͎̻̮̰̭̱̰̝̲̤̩̪̗ͅ*̤͍͇͉͚̩̱̭́̂̓̈ͥ͐͗͂̐̐͌́͛ͬ͛́͆̕͠͝*̶̪͔̟̺͕̫͇͓̱̙͍͋́̆ͯ͡*̛̣̫̺͖̏̎̔̐͛̈́ͤ͌̌̊̕͝*̶͈̮̼͉͋́ͭ̊͂͆̔̅̑́́̀͡*̸̸̧͚͔̗̰̱͕̻͓̬͈̩̗͉̽̌͛̽ͯ͑͊̊ͮ͂̌̿̌ͯ*̥̹͓͔̫̘̘̺͇͕̱̟̞̤̟͎̙͋̑́ͭ̌̐̒ͨ̿̿ͫ͗ͦ́́͞͡*͗̇ͨͮ̇͌͗͗́͏̰͙͚̪̙̯͇͉̯̲ͅ*̸̢͚̗̪̪̖͖̺̙̯͔͓̭̮̮ͦ͗͒̈ͣͫ̇͗̋ͤ*̢̲̠̖̗̲͖̲͈̖̺̯͍̖̲̳̠̥̊̍ͪ͂̔ͫ̌ͤ̍͂͗̓̑̉ͅ*̡͓͕̣͕̐̿̃͌ͬ͊ͧ̀ͅ*̛̺̥͇̯̣̯̻̮͇̻̖̯̗̪͓̭̲ͨ̏ͭ̓̾̍ͬ͐̔ͥ̐͐̚͜͞*̢̘̜̝̙̫̜̑ͣͦͩͥͫͪ͒ͣ̇ͭ̕̕͜͞ͅ*̧̡̟͕͔̱̗͓̝̙͎̻̲̳̖̈ͯ̒̇͗̑ͣ̂̇̚ͅ*̷͉̩̱̲̼̪̄ͨ̌͂̿̇͑̏͜ͅ*̸̢̳͚͖͚̮̮̮̞̭͔͓͚͈͓͓̘̣͔̾͒̆̏ͮ͑͊͊͒͢*̧̡͈̦̥̱̖̳̤̲̥̮̭̮̯̬̔͗̍̑̍̃̓ͮ͜͟ͅ*̵̹̟̼͖͚͕̦͉̻̟̯͓̟̠̎ͪ͐̆͛̈̽̓̉ͣ̕*̢̭͚͙̙̼̤̙͎͔̘͖͚̩̮̺̗ͫ̒̔̄ͥ̆͑̇ͬͫ̃ͧ̋̚͢͝*̴̶̶ͧ̑̈́̒̀̐́̀̌͏̦̳̘̝̖̗̙̟͙̀ͅ*̢̜̲̖̯͔͍̙̫̟̠͉̱͕͑͛͛͑̓̎̅̐ͣ͛ͤͮͤ*ͥ̀̏ͣ͆͒ͣ͛̑̔͗ͦͤͥ̋ͩ̇̒͜҉̧̮̫̠̙̲͉͔̪̖͟*̶͓̖̻̗̩͐ͤ͗ͨ͐ͤͦ̐̐̔́̓͑ͭͬͨ͂ͩ*̛͍̼͕̻̯̻̞̝̬͕̝̞͍̬̟̦͔̲͊̓̈̈́̎ͭ͑ͣ͛̾ͣ́͢*̸͇̠̜̜̄̃͋̀͋ͪ̿̔̊̔̉̓͌́͘͡*̶̙̲̻͎̟͔̥͔̹̠̱̼̤̃ͯͦ̓͋͂̉́̆̾ͥ̓͞*̶̵̪̱̩̳̞̜̗̪͙͈͇̤͛͑̿ͤͬ̒ͧ͗͒̾ͣ͗̎͊ͪ͌̏́̎*̄ͮͩ̋͌́͂ͬ́̉̀̌ͭ̃̋̂̀͜҉͇̱̼̫̗̺̪̩͚̙̥̦̝͠*̛̋͂̌̉ͨ̒ͪ͊͗̇ͯͮ̾͑̄̑̈́̄͡͏̫͓̘͕̳͎̩̰͇̦̭̟̦̹̝̺*̶̨̗̼̙͔̜̙̭͔̫̟̟̳̱͖͕̹̄ͧͬ̒͘ͅ*̑͗ͧ̈́ͤ̈͐ͥ̓̎́̀̓̾̀̚͏͇̱̥̝̟͚̘̗̳͉̬͇̜̱̝͍̕͜*̸̴̵̴̧̪̯͙̥̼ͯͦ͊̔̅ͩ̋ͅ*̥͇̲̤̙̬̀ͯ̄̍͑̒͋ͥͣ̇̓͛͟͠͠*̵̡͈͙̻̺̲̘̝̦̘͔̰̣͓͉̠̘̙̪͍̊̋̐ͮ̀͞*͓̩͈̹̟̣͈̥͚̘͇̗̜̦̜̗̞̦̺̇̇̐̌́̕͘͞*̛̱̳̮̜̩̹͕̏̋ͨͬͮ̐ͥ̅ͯ̊̉͋̑͗̕͜ͅ*̸̡̟̝̺̻̣̰̳̭̬͈͇͇̦̇̍͒ͮ̇́͊̓̍͌͊̈́͌̔ͪ͋ͥ̏̓́  
͙̦̬̥̦̥̥͚̤̩͙̙͈̩̗̤͕̘͋ͨ͋̑̌̈́͑̕͝  
̴̤̱̜̮̣͈̳͙̜͕̯̺̫͖͓̇̋͂̀ͤ̏͗̊̂ͯͪ̅̌́͐*̶̨̢̧̱̮̦͍͙ͬ̎ͭͨͬ̀ͥ͂ͫͪ*̵͚̖̠̇̓̑̋̌̂͊̃̔͐ͤ̀͂ͧ͘ͅ*̅ͧ͊̓̈̇͡͏̰͙͓̠͔̰͕*̸̎́ͨ̒ͯ͏̥̣̹̜̥̰̺͠͡*̆̃ͨͦ̍̾̏҉̸̗͉̺͈̫̠̦̹͓̖͓̬̹̤͙̀*̛ͮ̅̉̒͘͟͏̯͓͓̳̼̫̗̤͔*̿̌̓̎̌̑̀̓͛ͥ̓̾ͮͩ̉͗҉̴̷͙͓̲̻̟̣̩̞͢*̷͚͇̱̞̦̜̟̥͍̠̤̜̭̞̞͛̐ͥ͒͡͝͝ͅ*̨̹͓̥̞̍̇͂͊ͩͬ̋̀͋̈́̆ͥ̌̒̌ͨ͐͘*̴̧̇͛ͪ̎ͧ̎̈́̇ͮ̿̓͐͠҉̣̖̦̺̮̘̙̜ͅ*͉̞̳͙̻͕̖͙̱̲̙͔̝̮͓͈̪ͮ͆̀ͭ̔̒ͩ̊͐ͩͦ̃ͥ̊ͫ̀͊̏̀̕*̴͙̪̬̳̗̞͔̘̮̠̳͈͓̗̤̜͛̇̊̑͛ͯ͟*̜̭̗͓̥̈ͮ̿͋͒̓̅ͯ̒̕͡*̛ͥ͌̓ͧͪͭͩ͑ͮ̒̑ͣ͐ͩ̚҉̷̗̣͇͎̳̖̯̳̲̞̖́*̡̛̖̭̮̪͈̅̽̔ͩ͗̐͛̌ͧ̿̄̿̊ͪͩͥ͘͞*̵̗͙̜͙̼͉̫̩̹͉̰̾͐̔̇̎ͯ͌̈̓̎̈́ͭ́͒̅͗̚͞͝ͅ*̧͇̹̦̜̹͙̙̯̱̍̈́̏͂̾̄̐̈́́̚̚͟*̵͙̲̙̼̩̜̻͖̫̞͙̹̜̮͆̿̀̑̐ͬͧͮͬͫ̒͑̆͟*̺̟̥̩ͧ̌̎ͨ̿̂͊̏̓̉̅͊̇̐͋̾̚͟*̸̨̛ͥ̉̇ͪͧ͌̀͒̋ͩ͗ͮͬ̿̃͂͜҉͎͓̙̠̙̫̟̖͎͇̘̼̬̬̖̻̘ͅ*̛͖͖͖̖̟̫̼̟̾͑̒̔̆̑ͭ͝*̨̺̬͖̉̿̍͒̚͟*͔͕̖̭ͨ̊̔ͤ̄͝͡*̘̰͖̬̻͙̤̬̬͉̫̰̘̻͍͎̙̋͊͑̄ͨ͋̿͆̑̂̚̚͘͜*̡͓͚̩̗͔ͭ͐̆̓ͫ̔̔̊̾̚͘*̶̘͉̟̹̗͎̖̰̞̙̮̘̰̞̞͓̘̭͑ͯͥ̇̓̋̽ͧͪ̓̿͡*̧̐ͩ̄ͨ̓ͦͭͮ̽҉̡̤͓͍̼̫̠͜͜*̥̜̟̪͈͇̼͕̞̜͎̙̰͈̥͎̠̉͊̌̒͂̆̓ͯ̇͛ͨ̓̄̇̈̀*̥̣͈̣ͧͩ͂̄̽ͥ̅̊ͦ̀͑͆ͬ̋ͫ̀͠*ͫ̑ͩ̓̅҉͇͉͙̜̫̬̭͔͎͕̺̲̭̘*̶̡͉͈̙͇̟̞͚͖̗̭̬̫̟̂̔ͧ̒ͥ̊͌̈̽̈́̆̂͢͞*ͯͬ́ͫ̋̃̒͑̈̏͊̽ͧͤͤ̾ͯ̆҉̨̜̻͈͖͕͉̤*̨̛̼̬̺̱͔̝̻̬̲͚̦̪͍͉͈̝̜ͬ̇̊͐̔̒̃ͮ̿͜͝͝ͅ*̶̛̼͔̬͓̻̻̰͉̪̭̟̦̣̳̩͓̟͆́̔ͤ͢*̢̛̛̘̥̩̤̠̘͉̻̩̯͎̟̮̠̞̻͖̺͊ͥ͐̓ͩͅ*̵̱͎̥͍̳͇͇̣̞͈̈́̽̅ͭ̄̈ͤ̊ͦ́̐̿͆͟͜*̴̣̥̪͔̹̳̤̼͎̮̼̇ͨ͛ͦ̓ͮ͒̂ͧ͐̀̀͘͘ͅ*̑ͮ̅̀̓̀ͨ̓̏͛͆́̊ͪ̒̚͢͏̴̩̤͚̱̱͖͕̻̯̩͕͖́̕*̶̺̱̘͙̩̘̗̭͚̻͕̻̭̤̭̎ͭ̆͛͡͡ͅ*̶̮̗̯̠͎̬̰̝̹ͩ̂ͬ̒̌ͬͩ̅̄̉̂̀͢*ͩ̃ͭ́̊ͦ͗̄ͩ͋̂͐͌̽ͫ͗̍̇͢͏̢͞҉̗̺̯͈̺̩̙̱*̡̬͕̬̜̪͔̮͈̺͙̺͚̭̣͚͉͙̓̍ͩ̄̋ͣ͞*̥̜̱̰̩̺̣͕͙̮͕̫̂̎̒ͧ͢*̵̛̤̱̤̲̫̂ͦ͛͋̆̌̉̈̈́̋̽ͫ̅͊̾͌͐̚*̋̔ͩͪ̊͒ͯ̇̓ͣ̄̍ͩ̚͘͢͏̢̞͍̪̲̹̭̤̩̱̲͓̥̫̺͈͇ͅ*̡̙̖̠̭͈̟̯̟̗͖͉͖̰̥͇̓ͪ̌͌ͯ̇̽̚͝͞͡*̴̛̰̝̯͕͕͓͍͉̬̪̯̹ͬ͊̾ͬͧ̃̃ͦ͊ͩͪ̿̆̅̉*̢̙͕͙͎̰̺̬͈̼͉̟͔̝̍̏̾̽̓ͭͣ̾̐͊ͧ͟͞*̴̠͍͓͔͔̤̣̃ͩ̃ͣͨ́*̠̩͇̜͔̩͈̓̂̋ͣͧ̊͆̀ͬ̌͂͢͡*̶̶̷̄͛̅̌͌ͧ͆҉̠̻̙̣*̶̵̼̠͎͕̯̦̠̱̬͖͈̖̮͋̔ͤ̇̍*̷̻̻͙̗̖̣̳͈͇̬̮̄͆ͮͯ̌̅ͪ̋̉͗ͤ̍̄̈ͮͨ̏͘*̷͕̗͎̻͚̮̝̖̭̦̝͖ͫ̅͗̍̃̒̌͂͒̏ͯ͊̈ͬ̑͘̕̕ͅͅ*̶̧̙͉̤̓̇̇͂̐́͒ͫͤ̈́ͩ̆̍ͤ̅̍ͤ͘*̢̧͉̦̦̦̮͙̻͙͉̤̼͉̯̘̱̪̅͊ͪͦ̓̓ͯ̐́͆̽͗͛͐ͪ̕͢*̽̃̒͆̍ͪͨ͆ͫ̊ͯ͂ͪ̇̌̊͏̶̷̹̜̙͎͙̭͇͙̝͉͍͞ͅ*̑͛͋ͬ̇̽̀̒ͮͣ̍̄̓̅͆ͫ͊͏҉̦̳̬͍̗͙̩̜̖͍̮͈͘͢͢*̧̰̠̺̣̭͕̱̈̿̅̾͋̄͂̆̃ͨ̈́̒ͩ̀ͬ̚*̛͚̭̱̩͓͓̘͉̳̘̙̼͉͓̙̿ͬ̅ͬ͗̿̿̕ͅ*͍͖͇̦̗͙̱̈́ͩ̾̍̄ͪ͋̀́*̷̶̷̥̤̘̻̗̖͈̲̺̖̥ͩ̾͐̾̽̓̆̚͟*̴̷̧̛͕̝̮̙̗͕̤̟̲̖͍͇͕͚̣̻̙̓̉̔ͪ̓͂̈́ͨͪͣͩ̌̈͂͗̔̒͛̚ͅͅ*̵̢̳͔̺̬̞͔̬̣̟̣͚͓͔̩̹̖͙̎̊̊̽̃̓͆̋ͭͪ́̕͠*̴̛̳͎͓̱̪̦̹̮̣̮̦̍ͮ̇̋̉ͪ̔̔ͨ̏̎̌̀̄̓̚̕*̢̛͔̳̟̺̗̳͍̜̞͔̬̱̻̱̄̄ͨ͗͒͆̐͌͆̉͆ͬ̿ͬͤ̇ͭ̈͝*̻̺̺̺̻̜͙̮̰͎͈͒̊̍ͥ͆͑ͣ͢ͅ*̢̛̛̗̜̞͉̫̲̻̖͎̞̳̂ͭ͌̇͐̂̏̍ͫ͌ͥ̓̓͗̽͊̀ͤͥ̀*̸̝͕̲̲̬̘͖ͣͨͪͤ̂͟*̛͕̱̝̬̻̜̳̗͎͙̂͗̿ͮ̿̔̄͆͋ͪͤ̏̀̿͛̿͞*̛ͣ̓͌͛̈͠͏̛̪̤͈͖̫̯͞ͅ*͒ͯ͒̈́̂̎ͫ́͐̓̈́ͤ̐ͮ͛͏͠҉̹̞̗̻͚͈͉͖̦͍͘*̸̛̂͌ͯ͊͌͑͗ͪ̈́̿̃̆̋ͪ̔̆ͩ̚̚͡҉̵̞̼͙ͅ*̸̙̱͎̙͇̪ͭ̈̀͐͋͆̅ͩ̈́͐̍̋͗ͣ͗ͩ͜*̴͎̼̺̱̱̲͔̼̺͖̮̻̯͈̖̭͈͋̈́̿̂̎̎ͫ̌̄̋̆͘͞͝*ͥ̌͊̋̓͛͂̾́̅ͣ̄́̎͊̄́̚̕҉͞҉̭̰̜̲*̷̱̮̥̰̯͇͈̼̩͔̼̬͙̳̰ͬ̑͌ͫ̓ͪ̄̅̕͡͝ͅ*̢̟͎̪̳̤̬̥̜͓͉̹̻͔̮͎̺͙ͧͬͤ̍ͩ̇͘͢͠͡*̶̴͎̖̣͓͉͉͉̮̗̺̈́ͧͣͤ̎͗̂̾͒̒͛́͆ͣͮ̂́͟*̃̍̈̎̓̓ͤ̄̑̌̚͜҉̰͖̦͢*̰͕̘̻͎̯̔̐̐͑ͩ̾ͯ̌̇ͤ̌̐͐͛ͯ̊̀*̷̡̧̟̬̼͔̘̩̞͚̯̓̐̂͌ͯ̽̉̀̎ͬ̇̓̎̃ͮ̚͜͡*̶̪̥̹̱̩̈͂̊̑̎̄͆̂̐ͧͬͤ̋͜*͒̃ͩ̎͌ͧͧ̔̒ͦ̆ͬ̀̽̓̒̐̚͟͟͟͞͏͕͈̹*̨̛̖͓͕̩͊̂͆̈ͥ͌̈́͂́͜͢*̧͕͕̦̗̲̉̊͐̋͐̽͟͞*̶̬̼̱̰̗̘̗̰̐̀͋ͬ͌̈ͦͥ̈̈̈ͧ̿̄̊́̚͘͝*̨̹͔̯̜͍͓̲̜͖̜̘̝̤ͨ̅͆̌̃͛͋̓̑ͣ̋̓̐ͥͤ͆̿̌ͬ͝*̵̨͉͍̮̙̺̖͈̺̜̋̅̌ͪ͊ͤ̾ͬͩ̅ͧͤ̀̌͗ͪ͗̏̓͜͠*̧̣͓̲̀̆ͮ̆ͣ͜͝͝͠E̴̘̹̬͖̟͔̔ͣ̍̎̏ͫ̒̎̊̓ͮ̾̍ͣ͗̑̃̿͐́́͞ͅ*̶̧̳̪̟̱͍͈̱̪͎̥̰̬͇̩̻̒̿́͋̽̿̋͑͋͊ͨͣ́̑͜*͇̯͇̜̹̳̯̺̳͖͙̗̰́̓̾ͭ̃ͫ͂͛̊ͤͬ̂ͮͣͫ̉ͤ́ͅ*̡̡̛͇͔̩̭̟̘̬̩̜̺̎̓̄͟*̨̮̦͖͍͖̹̣̮͙̰̙ͬ̔ͩ͊̑̑͐͂͛ͮ̍̿ͦ̒͆̈͆͡ͅ*̏ͮͤͥ̉̾̽̇̽͋ͣ̍ͦ̏҉̭̠͔̳̭̫͔͚̖͔̬͉̣̼̟̭͕͇͕̕*̸̡̘̫̼̗͈͕̞͇͎͙̰͉͐ͫͤ̇̒ͥͨͤ̑̆̊ͪ̌̃͞*̶̧̨̡͚̙͎̫̥̤̬̱̙̼̲̝̪͙̫̰̰̉̇ͤ́̐ͅ*̵̵̲͇͖̲͕͎͇̺̲̫̇̒̇̏͂̽̍̇ͬ͢*̵ͫ͒̍̌ͥ̿̓̈͆͑ͭ͌̈͏̝͚͓͇̭̖͇͕̟̞̝͉̻̙̞͇*̸̨̟͍̲̪͇̠̙̘̗͓̑̓̍̃̂ͩ̃̍̽̿̑͌̿̓͡͠*̜͔͕͉̳̗̔̂͌͛ͤͯ̌͐́ͥ͛̇ͯ͒̐̃̑̚͜͢͠͝*̶̴̧̨͉̝͎̟̟̉͌̆̃̏̋ͣ̏ͫ̚͠*ͧͩ͗̀̾ͩ҉̶͕̥̤̮̤̳̬͚͍͇̝̮̖͝*̴̺̻̜͎̜̤͍̔ͣ̈́̀̋ͤͯ͟*̶̷͉̻͎ͪ̊̃͛͌ͤ̓̕͘ͅ*̑ͦ̾̎̒͐ͭ̐̍̆̈́̄̒̌͏̡̰̖͙̮̯̬͙͓̞̻̼̗͘͜͞ͅ*̢̼͔͎̤͕̲͙̖͓̙ͭͧ̇̇̅͆̈͋̅̄͒́͝ͅ*̴̨̧̟̬̩͇̌̃̇̐͗̾̾͑̿̐̍ͥ͑̏̊͌̀̽̎͢*̴̡̢̣̳̫̱̬̺̟̥̣͚͔̲̗͚͕̳̞ͤ̄ͤͯ͋͊ͬ̾̈ͫͨ*̝̬͙̫͕ͯ̾̂͋ͭ̈̐́̾͊̉̆̾̑͢͜*̧̡̳̪͚͕̘̙̻͕͖̬͇̔̈́̾ͯ̀ͨ̑͐ͣ́͑ͦ́ͮ͊̇͟͞ͅͅ*̸̛̺̮͇̯͔͈͍̦̭̯̦͎ͧ͐̂̉̋͢͝*̝͖͇̙͓̥̗̣͙͚͉̟̣̰͍͙̪̞̃̊ͫ͊͂͂͊͋̈́ͩ͛͗ͩ̒̑͘ͅ*̴͒̋̽͛̌̀̑̄͌̽̌ͪ̽̔͊̌͢҉͎̹͇͍̥̱̼̜̘̱̹͖͇̺̲̰ͅ*ͭͫ͑̑͌҉̵̨̘̝̮̤̳̣̕ͅ*̷̢̡̢̞͍̪͓͕͎̹͉͎͖̞̺̦̤̯͔̭͛̆̚͢ͅͅ*̶̛̺̝̲̠̩̩̘̺̹̬͊ͭ̎ͤ̓͂̇̆ͫͫ̉̅̆ͪ̚͝*̧̥̳̗̦̳̩̲̟̞̲̏͌ͮ͂̀̍͆̒̊͒̂̀͘͟͝*̷̶̟̣͉̹̤͖̳̲̃ͫ̑ͮ̈ͪ̎͊͑̒ͤ́͐̔̈̊̆ͧ̅*̴͈̙̫̳̰͔̝̯͉̰̜͕͓̲͕̯̼̻̊̒ͤ͗ͪ̈́ͯ̾̾ͬ͒̆͊̃̉̈̕*̸͉̫̤͚̖͔̦͖̫̦͈͙̹̗̙̹ͪͥ͌́ͬ̽͑̌̍͐̎ͭ͒ͯ͜͢͢*̡͎͚̺͎̠̣̪̗͎̪̲̗͙͓̎̃͑͋ͥͪ̂̈́̈̑͆͝*̴̛̰͉̙̳̟͕̝̫ͮ̋̏̆̎̇̌͢͠*ͬ̈́͆̔̔̀̚̚͏͏̧̳̦̮̱̫͚͔̪͇͇̫͉͎ͅ*̡̘̙͉̟̩̣̳͕̙̻͖̲͚̮̽̈ͮͯͭͧ̓͆̉͞͠͠ͅ*̨̨̨͈̙̺̼̺̥̫̤̤̝͕͓͚͍̞̥̻̲̬̊̓ͤͨͨ̐̿̽̿̈́̏ͪ̆͒͗̓̆̕*̜̗͈̘̖̹̦̳̤̮̰̺͓̗͕̲̰̯̙ͬ̒͋̑ͭ̏ͯ͢͝*̵̧̛͚̻͈̼̼̘̙̤̝̗̀ͦ̓̒ͤ̃͂̀ͮͅ*ͦ̌̓̐̿ͨ̄̃̿̈̄ͣ̃͒͑̚҉̖̖̠̰̫̲̭̖̬̟̝̘̩̼͟͞*͋ͭ̌͌ͩ̆͐ͨ̈͛̽̾ͦ̃ͦͮ̄͋ͤ҉̶҉̞͔͉̜̣͔͡*̵̧̨̥̥̙̦͉̲͚̱͓̤͓̖͙̱͍̩̱̹ͬ̆̆̑̽̏̓͐ͭ͗̃ͦ̾̔ͤ̍̏ͮ͜ͅ*̷̆̉ͩ͊̊͋҉͏̜͈̼͇̺̹̥̥̰̭̬̪͚̀*̞̯̮̹̖͚̰̗̖̞̯̰̐͂ͬ́ͤ͐̈̋͗͆̔̇ͧ͟͠*̨̼̹̬̹͕̲̟̭̖̠͎̲͓̞͇̇̅͌ͭ̈ͤ̊̎̅̀͞͞͡*̸̡͎͖̮͈̣̲̙͓̮̙̪̬̝̻̈́̑ͫ̆͌ͥͥ͑ͥ̒͐ͭ͜͞*̶̛͎̳͔̳͎̤̗̭̮̰̜͖͔̩̹̭̙̏̎̌͐̐̅̊̇̑ͮ͐*͖̲̱̘̏̃͐̾̏̿̊͊̚͟͠͝*̷̶̨̼̯̹̺̇̇͌̓͆̓̄̏́͗ͪ̏̂̑̈ͧ̽͛̚*̾ͪ͊͋ͧ͛̾̆̅̓̿̚͝͏҉̶͓̣͚̰͍̮̳̳̮͔͙̳͙̘̲͓͕*̴̩̼̖̺͚̥̗̙̞̟̤̠̹̆̂̎̂͂̇̂͒̔̀͋̐̅͒̎̀̀͘͜͞͝*̴̴̼̬̬̟̳͚͋̃̒̌̔̿̌͑ͬͪͨ̾͆̆̚͝*̸͂ͧͭ̒͑͐̏̒̏̀ͮͮͯ͝͝͠҉̞̤̭̪̖͓̳̝̲̜̮͈͉̥͈̣̝͉̣*̛͛ͤ̈ͪ̿̑̓̄ͤ́͒̕҉͎̳̫̖͚͓̥͎̼̬͙͔̰̞͈̹͚͞ͅ*͚͔̯̯̳̗̤͎̳̰̑͐̒̎̎ͯͣ̋̽́͜͞*̮̯̳̤̼̰͌̓ͣ̇͂̔̄ͧ͛̋̌͌̃̕̕͘͝*̤̣̭̤ͬ́̔̉̾̂̈́̐̍ͮͣ̊͒ͫ͗̽̂͑͘͢͢*̸̴̷͇͍̪͚͕̞͖̰͑̉͒͂ͅ*̸̴͕̣̬͔͙͙͆̉̋̇ͨ͛͑͆ͭ*̜̲͈̩̲͇̪̣̘̾̄͊̍ͨ̍̈̓̂ͮ̓ͭ͑̀*̴̢̟̗̯͑̑̃͗ͯ̽̐ͯ̋̒ͪ͊ͪ̽̋͂̿̎̊*̨̙̳̞͎̫͎͚ͨ̊̊̍̇͛̚̕͠͠ͅ*̡̧̯̮̮͖͖̎̑͗̈ͪ̃̇͢*̧̰͕̬͇̩̬̞͓͎̩̤ͧͤ̋̌̍̈́̌͂̏̏ͧ̓͂ͦ̋́̀́͘*̷̛̻͈͓͙̘̥̺̫̠͈̖͓̦̘̻͗̉̋*̢͇̲̱̗̠͇̠̠̱̓̋̓̚͟͞͞*̼͔̮͔͚̫̗ͫͨͭ͂ͨ̐̀ͥ̚͘͞*̧ͪ̾̾ͩ̓ͦͮ̾̄ͨ̽̃ͪͨ̇̍͏̱̞͓͙̯*̶̟͕̘̩̗͇̺̹̱̳̙͈̇̑̓͗ͥ̌͢͞  
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͔̟̞̠ͭ̄̾̆ͦͫ͋ͥͨ̑̾̽̀͑́͌́͟͝ͅ*̸̳̹͈̰̝̗͖̰̼̻͇̤́̾ͧ̓̉͒ͨ̚͘*̴͚͚͕͉̳͙̙̳͖̹̼̌ͪͮ̇̇̕͡*̼̮͚̟̲͚̱̼̙͇̘͙̻͓̼͊̉̈́ͨ͆͌ͤ̆̒ͮ͗̑̋̐̓̀̈ͫ͟͝*̴̈̐͒̐͑̊ͣ̐ͫ̿̎̚͏̸͖̰͍̺̱̣̘͙͓*̊͆͊ͭ̈́ͫ̓͂ͥ͆͌̏͏̧̛̹͙̘̝̖̙͞͡*̸̸̇͑̇ͨ͌ͥ҉̴̖̳̠̩̳̕*̨͕̫̯̝̫̂̐ͥͬ̆̈́ͪ̔̆̕*̵͖̰̙̥͙͉̻̜̜͍̙̫̳̹͗̎ͣ͛̓̅͐̇̓ͯ͊̄̂̑́̕ͅ*̢͚̰̬̻̺ͦͭͪ̌̐ͥ̊ͦ͐͊́͛́͟*̷̡͖̰̙͌̍ͪ̑̇̐ͨ̒̔̂̉ͪͮͩ͟͡͠*͎̼̹̞̊͛ͤͯ̉͂͐ͬ̂̚̕͢͠͡ͅ*̨̨̧̹̠͉̤̘̪̾̍̄̍ͦ͒͊ͨ̕*̷̨̫͕͖̭̺̟̮̳̤ͧ̄͛͊ͩ͛̑͆̊͡*̶̶̴̛̣̖̱̲͙͚̺͖̻͓̳̤̦̠̮̫͍̲ͬ͆̉̅ͯͨͬ̽̐̆̉͘*̡̩̘̳͈̜̯̯͔̱͒͋̃̄͗̌̊̽̆ͮ̓̄̆̐̐̉ͅ*̷̛̭͍̫̗̲͔̃ͦͧ͋͗̕͡ͅ*̧̦̳͇͇̟̝̙̞̼͓̹͗͑̃̃ͪͬ͛̏̆͐͋̌͑̀ͯ̓͌̉ͣ͘͜*̨̘̯͉̯̯̜͓͎̟̹͇͖͓̱̜͉̺ͨ̍̓ͥ͆͒̉ͨ͌ͦ̂̀̀*̡̛͈͎̲̘̖̠̳̼͉̺̠̳̙̜͈ͥ͛ͯ̿̿̐͆͊ͯ̐ͬ͒͆̏́ͨ̀ͣ͡*̢̛͗ͨ̽̇ͭ͑̈́͂҉̱͍͎̫̯͕̻͍̺͎̺͓̬*̢̛̟̙̤͎̞̱̳̅̆̊̾͟͞*̬̝̭̰͇̌ͭ̆͛̿̍͌͑̌̌̐ͥ̅̄̍̚͜͞͡͠*̬̯̖͓͎̞̯͓̞̱̺̠̦͊̎͛͗͆̏̐̄ͦ̇ͬ͐̌̎͋̊̂̀́̀̚*̸̤͖͔̐̌͊̒̇̈̊́͋̎̀̃̚͡͞͡*̶̢̩̝̺̯̺̰̪̪͙̰̤̙̯̙̘̝̖̟ͯ̒̿͐͒̓̈́ͫ̎ͦ͒̒̒̊̿ͅ*̧̨̦̼̮̙̅ͤ̌͆̽̑͊ͫ̉̏͋̓ͪ̎́͟*ͣ̈́̊ͭ͐҉̢̡̳͎̟̼̫̗̩͜*̞͕̺̙͉̯̣͎͍͔̦͖̻̼ͯ̀̀͌̓̽̽ͫ̊͟*̅ͬͤ̆̇ͩ̽̓̎҉̷̡̢̪̯͖̹͚͓͍͙̻̬͉͖͕̘̼̝͇̯͢*̧̼̟̜͓̓̂͒ͯ̑̐̈͗͌̒͂̓̑ͯ͊̕*̴̡̟͖̻̳̖̘̗͉͉̼͚̻ͩ̅̀̃̿̽*̴̶̬̬̬̣̰̬̖̖̲ͩ̄̏̀͂̃̽̎̈́͗ͧ̕͠*̨͇̘̝̼͇͉̮͖̳͎̏ͣͣ͂̋̀́͡*̵͉̝̻͈̫͕̤̯̠͔͉͔̜͙ͬ͒̽͑̈̇̇̾̐̀́ͭ͜*̨̨͔̬̪̯̬̭͇̮ͮͩ̅̽̔̎̿ͨͣͨͥ̋̎̊̏ͣ̽̆̚͡*̨̡͇͎͖̗̲̲̣̭̳͈ͥ̊͐̒ͣͪͮͨͩͮ̕̕͝ͅ*̶͕̜͙͎̲̤͈̦̳͇͚͖̥̙̻̰͋͗̈́͌ͪ̓̉̄̇͟͞ͅͅ*̴̸̦̤̟͖͍̙̇̔̔ͩ̕̕*̶͗͐ͮ̓͌ͫͨ̃̑̎̚͏̖͔̲̘͉͇̰͎̼͎̲̠̯͇̲̝̥*̹̗̖͖̭̥̥̣͉̭̤͇͚̓̊͊͟͠*̷̤̦̫̳̟̥͕̪͍̮͇̥̌̆̽̄ͨ͂͐̔ͩͤͪͣ̋̓ͣ̑́*̸̽̾͆̐͏̝̤̦̤̝̦͚̥͔͙̼́͞ͅ*̵̧ͥ͐̑͏̛̩̹̮̺̦͙̘̟̜̪̦͙͠*̡̳͔̮̪̦ͥ̊̂̄ͯ͊͌ͭ͢͝*̸̭̬̻͚͖̩̝̣̫͙͙̟̜̥̮̘̔͊̋̔̉̈́̓̓͆ͮͣ̊ͬ́͟*̡̼̭̫͓̫̖̦̤͉̺̣̥̬̈̈ͬ̋ͮ̄̏͛ͩ͒͛̾ͨ͑̚͟͞͠*̛̱̥͔̫͎̳̙͈̉ͯ̿ͣͯ̀ͧ̚̕*̶̢̺̮̭̙͈͙̗͎̩̼ͥ́̏ͧ͊̍ͮͣ̂͟͡ͅ*̢̢̤̝̟͖ͦ̇͒̂̿ͦ̐͒̉ͫ̎ͤ͆̉̽̀*̧ͪ͋̌̑̎̾̅̓̅̿̏̃ͩ҉̪̰̗̫̦͈̪̣͙̹̺̥*̡̙̪̰̭ͣ́͑͌͐͋͐̾̀̊ͩ̓ͮ̓̄ͤ*̱̙͍͈͔͇̟͎͕̩̣͈͖͑̃̉̀ͩ̂̿̋̾́͡*̢͎͔͔̖̲̰̪͖̹͈̜̱̥͚̫̩̗ͧͥ̎͢͜*̢̧̞̣͍̭̩̮̫͙͎̮̜͈͔̥̑ͮ͒͐̋͐͘͝ͅͅ*̫̳̜ͪͨͭ͑ͬ͛ͬ͂͆̓̍͐͘͜͠*ͬ̃̀͌̇̀҉̳̤͚̹̻̱͇*̷̨̉ͣͤ̂̔̃̆̅̔̏̐́͋̕͝҉͕̻͓̭̥̲͓̠̘͖̫*̨̞͙͇̞̯̯̻̪̜̲̺̫͒̊̉̅͂ͫ̔ͪ͂̍̅͒ͪ̓̏ͫ̒ͪ͛͞*̸̧̰̦̥̬̙̪̼̺̹̔̑̋ͣ̓̓̏̊̓ͫ̚̕*̲͔̭̟͓͉ͩͧͥ́̾͒̄͌ͯ̈ͫ̇̾͜͡*̨͍͚̰͔͓͔̽ͭ̐́̇̐̉ͣ̑̏͊͒̑́͋͛̊͑̀͞ͅ*̷̶̛͙̭̩̫̙̫̖̺̟̜͋ͨ̉̂̉̄͂̎͢ͅ*̶̹̪̻̻̞̮̙̳̞̟̪̬̩̣͎̮̊ͯͫͧ̋́̌ͮͨͩ͌͐͒̑̈̃̀ͅ*̡̩̼̞̳̖̟̠̯͇̳̯̞̩͚̥̟͚͇̳̄̓͒͒̃̽̉̃ͨ̎̐͆͐̆͂́̀̚̚*̵̷̛͓͈̳̱̺̙̦̜͙̫̖͖̗̠̼̾̅ͪ̍̾̋̽͑͛̐̉̏́͡͝*̨̢̳̥̭̠̟̼̠͎͖͕̟̤̞̗̟̜̹ͯ́̂̈́*̡̆̓ͭͭ̾̉ͪͣͬ̒̅̅̈́̔̃̚͟҉̶̟͖͓͕̯͔*̧̈̌ͩ̌͂ͫ̏͑ͣ̃̂́͋͛҉̴̜̺̭͔͖̰͓͎͍̦̤̩̝͓̥̀̀*̨̧̨̫̺̤͖̗͇͕̟̥͎͙̤͙̻̇̇ͣ̈́͂*̛̏͆ͤ̊͊͗̎̓̓͋͗ͨ́́̂̐ͫͥ̎͠͠͏͍̫͇̪*͌ͤ͆̈̈́ͨͫ҉̯͙̙̦̞̺̪̬̺͙͈̞̜͚̫̼̜̰̪*̢͇̘͇̭̬̳͖̙̞̼̐̊̊͑͑̆̎͛̏̊̀ͣͨ͆͋ͩͯ͞*́̉ͯͦͦ̾ͥͣ̎͂̔̂ͯ̚̚͝͝͏̶̖̭̖̥̰̰*̴̴̢̘̣̠͙͖̥̹̗͎̣̜̾̓̔̇͗ͧ͠*̢̡͌̊̅̔͊̑ͬ̑̋͞͝͏̰͚̮̩*̸ͣͭ̓͋̈́́̈̈̈̄̽̚҉͔̼̦̰̣͖̜̪̮̥̹͔͘͜ͅ*̴̧̛̥̦̲̼̫̬̘̗͍͍̪̻ͩ̅̿̎ͮͨͨ̋̆̈̇̒̇́̚*̷̨̖͍̲̮̳͔͎͕̣̥͚̬̞̯͋̓͋̂̆ͫͮ̿ͥͩ̚͜͢*͈̮̙͉̦̟͙̙̤̲̖̼ͭͬ̑ͦ̀͟*̆̉͒͗̽͏̵̶̲̘̖̱̖̬*̴̨̛͍̜̺̯̭̆͋̐ͭ̃ͅ*̧̭̦̖̈̆̏͗ͣ̋̎̍̓ͫͮ̐ͨ*̶͌͗͑́ͧ͘͏̴̜̘͉͎͙̳̠̣̼͔͕͉̝̥̺̮̟̘̗̀*̧̛̟̰͔͓̳̝̯̜͈̋̉̍́̍ͬͬͯͧ̎ͥͮͫ͑͟͞*̨̰̘̻̪̹̺̭͉͙͕͇̣̗̔̋̌ͧͬͥ̄̏ͩͬͪ̌ͤͦ̎̇ͪ͜*͛̀́̀ͥ̌ͮͥ̀͗̉͌̂̎ͨ͏̫͓͔̣̖̼̺̬͖̠̞̺͈̬͡ͅ*̵̷͋̽̐ͮ͏̴̶̰̟̘̳̝̲̪͙͙̣͕͕̠̞̭̼͚̺*̢͉̮̹͙͔̫̗̪͔̫͇̗̣̭͙̐̽̈̈́̃̌̔̿̃̀͆̋̽ͥ̍̀ͣ̀͘͢*̸̧̧̡̣̭̖͕̒̿̆̊ͣ̀ͣ͒ͥ͌̇̚*̸̧̦̲̖̺͊̓̃̅̋̀ͦ͋̀͂ͣͧͣ̈ͩ͋͋͟*ͪ̈́̉͆͗҉͏̢̧̝̜̟͕*̧̹͔̻̦̬̩͔̟̪͙͈̫͇͇̉̌̍́̕͟ͅ*̇͐̉̒ͬ͑ͨ̏̊̄͂̉̍̅̃͏̷̵̘͕̤̝*̸̨̛̗̫̺̠̱̻͓͍̱̎ͩ̾͛̍̋́͡*͎̩̰̭̫̜͇̮̣͎̗̙̹̙̫̜̬̓̃̓̋͢*̢̻̬̣͍ͤͣͭ̃͂̃͋̌̓̉͑ͬͬͫ͑̚͘*̵̩̩̟̭͉̪̭̜̙̗͓̻͍̩͚̃ͯͦ̍ͯͤ͋̐̌ͮͥ͛̀̕͝*̶ͬͮ̒ͤ͆ͦ͋̀͂͒͝͏̡͙͖͚͈̼̭̱̮͈̩̣̭͝*̐̈ͬͧ͏͕̱̙̘̰̖͓̭̭̜̝̯̜̝͖͢*̡̪͖͙͕̦̤̆̓̅̀̀̚͝*͎͎͚͕̤̲͍͖̘̰̭̓͗̅ͣ͋̔ͦͬ̒ͥͦ̿̑ͨ̽ͧͣ͆̀̀͠*̷̗̫̙͚̟͕̄ͪ̊̆͐͝*̴̛̾̓ͭ̂̾̾̚͟҉͕̰͖͚̻̮͍̮̲̪̭̖*̔̐ͨ̌ͫ͗͂͆̒̑̂ͭͯͩͨ̚͏̧̙̠̝͔̰̳͎͖́́ͅͅ*̢̬̳̯͎̦͊͐̉̓̏̀̕͜͝*̶̡̛̯̟͉̟̗̣̐ͭ̈ͭ͑̿ͬ̽̔ͩ̊̈͆̚̚*̝͍̮̝̫̤̘̩̫̜̠ͣͭ̅̑̚͘͜*̴̷̡̤̩̱̝̥͕̫̞̟̌ͪ͋͗ͩ̐̉̇͐̒͗̀̚*̴̶̲̼͈͉̆͛̈̃̅̌̆̐ͩͣ̐ͬ́̂ͪ̃̄̃͆͠*̧̦̱̼̲̩̊̊͋͗ͤ̏ͣ͋̿͘*̶̧̡̝̪͇͙͖͓̺͍̻̦͍̠̓ͬ̎̈́̓̾ͅ*̶̫̫̙̺̝̬͍̠̮̤̺̜̜̫͙͚͔ͭ̏̀ͤ̏ͦ͊ͩ*̙̰̞̘̦̜͖͙̆́̾ͣ͒͊̓̎́͂̒͘*̴͕̮͓͙̼̣̬̙̩̖̯̝̭̣̝̞̥̬̠̄̊͐̂͂̂̎̿ͯ̂͒̃ͬ̏ͫͩ͢*ͬ̈̈́ͩ̃̓҉̴̧̧̫̗̹̤͇̩̺̪͓͇̳͎͔̭͚͙̳̬͝ͅ*̨̡͖̯͕̬̗̟̭͉͖̯̠̓̏̋͊̚͜͢͞ͅ*̵̟͉̜̘̟͔̜͈̗̥̓ͭ̈́ͦͮ̇̽͛̌̂́̚͠*̵̠͎̟̏͋ͭ̅̄ͦ͌͠*̡͖̩̲̫̯͍͎̻̰̝̜̼͍͓͎̟̜͔̣ͯͬͧ̔ͣͫͭ͌́́͢͠T̸̮̪̝̜̻̪̖͌ͣ̈̎̉̊͊ͫ̒ͦ̀͞*̘̤͖̭̪̰͕̻̺̦̝ͯ́̃ͮ̽́ͭͧ̃͐͘͜*̷̢̟̜͇̺͉̘̘͎̪̯̣̹̝̬̬̩̾͌ͣ̐ͧ̂ͪͪ͑̊͆̓͡*̢̧̳͉̮͖ͭ͆͂ͨ̂̒́͗̋̆͜*̵̛͍̝̯̱̥ͫ́ͬ̄̃̏ͦ̓͐̏͛ͪ̏͊͂ͮ̑̈́͘͝*̧̢̻̟͍̤̼͇̣͓̞̠̻̠͕̝̮̼̽̒͑ͮͅ*̔͊ͣ̉ͨ͒ͬ̏͆̈́͠҉͉̫̰͈͚̠̣̣͔̗̝̤͚̠̺̼̣̙͕*̰̮̠̺̯̮͎̠͓̠̹̯͉̅̾̅ͧ̍͌̃ͥ̃́́́*̶̵̗̞͕͕̭̝͉͕̮͎̥̪̱̼̪̭͙̉͌̈ͪ͜*̔̑͆̌ͬ̄͌͋̎͂̓ͪͦ҉̷̵̧̣͉̗͎̮͚̥̘̪̘͚̻̼͞*̶̮̝̯̟̘̝̹̣̱̦͙̟́ͤ͒ͥ́ͭ̎͛͒͆̋̈́̈́̋̐͛̚͢͟͠͠*̧̧͇̘̦̠͖͎͌̑ͮ̚*̯̬̞̠̜̮̱͇̳̣̮͈̝̜͕̗͈̱̞ͨ̐ͮ̏̂̏͌̓̈͂̿͒͐̀̾ͥ͛ͭ̕͡*̶̨̠̩̭̭̗͍̫͉̦̤̞̲̰̠̥̜̿̃ͧ̽̌̐͐̅̑̐ͩ̉̇͠ͅ*̾ͭ̓̃̊ͮͧ̈ͮ́ͤͤͣ͌̚͏̧̗̙̘̜̘͓̹͍͔̭̀*̺͉̱̱͈̺̩̩̰͓̦̳̼͚͔̾̈͛͂̈́ͬ͢*̨̐̄͛͛ͫ̂͜҉̬̥̞̙*̶̗̝̫̮̟ͭ̓̆̒ͥ͌́́͟*̶̱̟̣̝͇̠̱̰̟̺̰̣̲̗͊̈́̏́͌̽ͦͣ̒̊̑ͥ͝*̵̶̨̫͈̫͍͓͕͍̬͇̣̰̥̙̙̩̖̤̌ͩ̑ͬ͑̍̽́̚͘ͅ*̷͓̘̺̠ͣ͋͗ͭ̄̓̑̓ͬͥ͟͝*̸̺̫̫̮̺̙̩͍͓̘̽ͥ̔̄̽̄̒̃͒ͥ͂̂ͪ͛ͬ̒͐̿́͜ͅ*̷̡̩̻̰̺͕͎̙̝͍̣̰̎̋̇͆̄͌͒ͩ͆̈̊̚͜*͓̝̬̪̭̭̞̞̤̞̣̗̗̝̳͍̬ͦͯ̈̎͌ͩͪ͘ͅ*̷͕͈̟̺̦͌̃́̌̓ͨ̐̿̎́͊̔̾͘͠*̶̴͍̭̳̥̙̜̤͚͈͊̓͊̿̒̅͒ͬ̌̂̎ͩ̇̊͌͊͘͟ͅ*̨̠̯̥̤̈̂ͦ̓͡ͅͅ*̢̛̪̰̼͕͖͎̞̺͍͓̜̙̻͎ͥͥͯ̇̅̎̑̔̎̏ͧ̃͛ͭ̊͗̅̓͘͟͝ͅͅ*̧̛̛̛̙̗͎̙̰̣̮̬͓̩̗̒̿͊̈́͢*̡̓̅̑ͬ͊̐̍ͬ̆̽͏͟҉̞̦̫̰͍̦̟̜̠̞̙͍̣͇*̏ͣ̔̋ͭ͌̆̐̓̄͆͐͆ͮ̋̀̚͘͞͏̠̬̘̘̤̟̩̱̳̜̯̪̮̟̜͍̫ͅ*̵̦̳͙̰̙̩̣̲ͦͫͦ͑ͧ̍̊̓͡͡*͓͖̦͔̩ͭ̒̋͋́͢*̴̛̘̻͙͓͙̪̣̦̹͕͗̓̅͌ͯ*̶̸̢̼̰͍͉͚͚̤͓̞̲͚̟̹̹̥̺ͨͪͧ̃̇̾̄͐̽̑̍*̶̸̡͇̼̘̺̯͔̏͆̾̔̿͜͜*̓̏͆̐̍̂̓҉̛̘͎̩͚̦̬̳͈̼́*̌̃̌̉̃͛̈́̈͒ͧͭ̂̔̈ͮ͋̚͏̬̲̖̯̱̙̺̣̳̫͚̟͚̙̠̞͔͉̀ͅ*͚͓̥̩ͫ̾͌̈́̔̏̓̊̽̐̃ͭͣ̌͑̈̓̍͘͜͝͞*̵̸̬͙͖͚͖̻̩͚̠̦̩̮̬̪̮̟̿̐͆̀͜͝  
̸̴̪̘͙́͌͛́́̚

 

Slowly waking up from some nightmare long forgotten, you rolled in your sheets to peer blearily at the time on your phone. Ugh, too early to be up. Your alarm clock started beeping the second you started going through the messages on your phone, and you hit it with an indignant groan, “Shut up you dumb thing, I'm up already! Geez...”

 

Kicking free of your sheets, you trudged to the kitchen and began listlessly eating yogurt while checking text messages from Amber.

 

Amber:

-sounds like it's really tough over there. let's go to the arcade for spring break soon, 'kay?

 

You typed back a 'sounds good', before yawning and tapping your laptop monitor with your forehead with an exaggeratedly slow headbutt.

 

…

 

…...?

 

It feels like you've done this all before. Even the way the yogurt piled onto your spoon seemed familiar, your mind tracing the shape into memory easily. Huh. You shook your head a little bit to rid yourself of the feeling. It was too early in the morning for this, and at this rate you wouldn't be able to make yourself a proper breakfast. You decided to drop off at the cafe before classes began.

 

The cafe was somewhat busy first thing in the morning, but you showed up quickly enough to avoid the rush of students, and sat outside sipping away at your drink to just watch passerby. The muffin in your hands was cool to your touch from the display refrigeration unit, cinnamon and brown sugar melting in your mouth and you... set the muffin aside. Perturbed, you couldn't shake off this overwhelming feeling that you've done this all before. You managed another mouthful of coffee when a familiar face drew your attention away from people watching.

 

Papyrus was shuffling slowly across the street from your side of the walkway. He didn't appear to notice you, rather a pale-white cloud of smoke wafted from the vape that he usually carried around. Talking on the phone, you couldn't quite catch what the conversation was about, but there was an alert way to the way he was standing. Perhaps it was because you were watching him so closely that had him looking around, trying to trace the weight of your gaze back to you in at the benches. You glanced away instinctively to avoid being caught staring, and your gaze fell onto the car across the way missing its license plate. The sounds of an engine starting up rumbled through the air, and deja vu flooded you with grim certainty. You caught yourself standing before you realized that you already knew what was going to happen.

 

Tossing your drink to the side in a rush to race the squeal of tires, you ran as fast as you could, sucking in air as you sprinted into the street to scream, “PAPYRUS WATCH OUT!”

 

Papyrus turned as if he'd been expecting you all along, the hand with his phone held limply by his side, the other hand held out as you sprinted past his upturned palm to tackle him. You could feel his arm wrapping around your shoulders in a half-hug before space spun past you and you both ended up a few yards away from the threatening screech of tires, you knocking him over with your weight and faceplanting into his sternum hard enough that you felt the cartilage shift in your nose.

 

“Ow...” You pushed your hand up against your nose to check for blood, but all the damage was just a mild stinging that made the space between your eyes throb. Papyrus grabbed your arm to pull it away from your face, and you froze at his absolutely furious expression.

 

“you idiot! do you value your life so little you'd get yourself killed?!”

 

Ah... that sense of deja vu finally faded away. Did you manage to successfully avoid the accident, then? You were distracted from your response by the overwhelming wash of relief, until Papyrus began patting you down, first at your head which was forcibly tilted left then right, and then down to your shoulders and sides, the overly familiar contact eliciting a startled squeak and you batted him away. “WHOA Hey!!”

 

“put away your claws kitty cat,” he grumbled. “i need to make sure you avoided getting hit completely, and didn't winged somewhere.”

 

“Me? You were the one who nearly got hit!” You argued, annoyed as he finally stopped patting and prodding. You pushed him back, leaning into the motion to pin him in place. “Shouldn't I be checking YOU for injuries?!!”

 

“oh?” he quirked a bonebrow, and shrugged one shoulder out of his jacket suggestively. “why don't you?”

 

You stared at him disbelievingly, feeling your face go warm and nearly jumping to your feet, and then shook your head instead. Don't react to it, he lives for that shit. “N-nope. I'm leaving your medical examination to Undyne.”

 

“aw, cold.” he whined, but you both stood up and brushed yourselves off. You would've continued shooting snarky comments back and forth all day, but people began approaching from the street to check on you. Uncomfortable with the attention, unable to easily explain how you got from the street to the sidewalk, you looked to Papyrus for guidance only to realize he was slowly being pushed further from you by the sheer position of the people positioned between you and him. He gave a slightly imperceptible shrug, a two finger salute, and then disappeared as you were forced to answer their questions.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A hint to the text garble above, if you hadn't spotted it already- 5 letters. I've already Swapfell plotted out, unsurprisingly, but no, the crazy part is I'm tempted to just squidge all down even though there's going to parts of it that catches up to the main timeline. I don't even know what's wrong with me either, it's not like I've even gotten to the parts I want to write in the main story. X'D  
> Fun fact: I nearly did exactly this in the main story, and we would've had a VERY different story for it.


	51. Kidnapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler alert- we all knew it was going to happen. Except for the parts where we didn't.

The red heart was radiant, much more than the rest of the hearts in the room, including the yellow soul that you wanted nothing more than to embrace. What made it unusual wasn't just the brightness of the soul, but the collection of shards that peppered its surface. Were they pieces of another soul? Who's..? You wanted to talk to them, but you had to be careful about entering Frisk or Amber's dreams. You were in an enemy camp, that much was obvious. Surrounded by strange souls, a couple of them a dimmer almost dirty red in comparison to the intensity of Frisk's soul, other souls speckled with darker purple, or orange hues. Neither of the purple souls looked like yours, though you weren't sure if that meant much. There were dark blue and cyan blue souls that you passed in the city, but only one dark blue soul can be seen. In total, you saw seven people that were not your friends who were scattered in different rooms, a couple of them so dull from being in the waking world that you'd nearly missed them.

 

You followed the streets and risked nearly face planting into trees in a pitch black park, the only souls to the light the way there were minuscule and high up in the outlines of trees, likely squirrels and other daytime creatures. If you had time, you would've allowed yourself to be distracted by the cluster of souls that outlined the bushes from below. There were souls everywhere but nothing in comparison to the reddening glow that made you become even more and more nervous. The path after cutting the park grew familiar as you neared the school- and passed by it. You were now cutting through the neighborhood pocketed at the north of the school and into someone's house.

 

Each surface was reflected from the glow of Frisk's determination, the people outlined clearly though their features remained vague and unidentified. Your excitement growing, you could feel the heaviness of what you've done growing in a single overwhelming thought,

 

_I know where they are now._

 

You've gotten the drop on them thanks to your SURVEY ability! And yet... what now? You looked longingly to the yellow soul, your strong connection with Amber drawing you to her automatically. You could feel your throat close up but you ground yourself against the gravitational pull of your emotions. Were you willing to risk another attack to speak with them?

 

…

 

You reached out, and steeled yourself by gathering your magic protectively around you as you grabbed both souls. Their dreams felt disjointed, an achey feeling prevailing throughout, and more than anything it felt sluggish. You could feel a headache coming on just being inside them, and the last of your nerve fried out. In a panic, you yanked both dreams you could feel yourself entering and pulled them in-

 

-and falling out into the cool grass of the meadow, the sounds of the lake lapping at the shore. The portals were complete, they were tied to your dream too now. Frisk and Amber stirred, Amber groaning out loud and Frisk simply sitting up and holding their head in their hands. You crawled closer to where they'd fallen around you, feeling your magic embracing them. The secondhand sore feeling ebbed away in a few moments as both of their HP rose. Frisk blinked up at you, taking in the new surroundings, and then looking back to you as you stared.

 

And stared.

 

Their right eye was crimson, not like the blood vessels in the sclera had popped, but the irises were a deep red hue. Almost unconsciously, you'd reached out to cover the eye and half of Frisk's face, then switch over so that the eye was visible again. You did it again, and then sat back processing it.

 

“Frisk, who am I seeing?”

 

“It doesn't matter,” Gaster's voice sounded, unsurprisingly still present. “Morning approaches, you must be quick with fulfilling your mission objectives.”

 

“Mission objectives? But...” You looked to the other two humans present, somewhat perplexed. Flowey's plan merely had you tracking down the humans, and then getting kidnapped. Which sounds pretty terrible, but it makes sense to choose the time and place so that Flowey can lurk in the background until it was time to escape.

 

With perfect sincerity, Gaster stated, “This doesn't end until they end.”

 

“What are you saying?” You demanded, scooching close to Amber and grabbing her hand. She breaks into a tired smile and hugs you. She leans heavily into you with a tiny murmured 'hey', like she's about to fade from the dream and you wonder how effective your magic is, sharing dreams over the distance.

 

“They won't stop unless they're stopped N O W.” He clarified, and Frisk nodded slowly. You looked between the two unbelievingly, as Gaster slowly turned his head to look at something.

 

You followed his gaze but there was a sudden stabbing searing at your optic nerve. You sucked in a breath and slapped a hand over the eye to look at the ground far from you where it appeared to be eaten away by insects. Earth was crumbling inside the holes, and despite the semi-consistence of the dream, you began worrying. Frisk stands up, both eyes grim and they march over. You scramble with Amber trying to keep up, leaning heavily on you. You approach the hole, unsteady as she bumps into you, and see the glittering dizzying universe inside the holes. Stars twinkled, except that they looked muted and far, something strange almost lapping over the midnight darkness.

 

You thought of backing from the holes, the ground beneath your feet feeling less steady still, the breeze gone. It was like someone placed the atmosphere on mute, and before you could start feeling like your lungs couldn't take in enough air, hands were on your back.

 

You turned just enough to see Frisk staring into your eyes resolutely. They shoved you hard, so that your precarious balancing act on the soft crumbling ground tipped sideways, Amber falling with you. You yelled in surprise, and felt your heart drop to the pit of your stomach as you were free falling into the galaxy below.

 

~

 

“KITTY ARE YOU OKAY YOU'RE-”

 

You thrashed in the bed, and slammed your hand in the dresser as a result, gasping as the real pain reminded your mind that you were here and not in a stranger's house or a dream. That realization was quickly followed by a thump as your dog was unceremoniously dumped from his place at the foot of your bed. He gave you a wounded look, and shook himself before padding off. Papyrus for his part, looked worried sure, but more than that he was looking at you with an alertness in his eyes.

 

“WERE YOU DREAMING AGAIN?”

 

“Yes I-” You remembered that Amber fell with you, and looked around you wildly, but you saw nothing. Ugh, if only it was that easy. It looked like you couldn't physically pull people through dreams into new places. You suddenly envied Sans for his easy shortcut abilities, and had to push it down before the thought depressed you too much. You found them. You know where they are. “I'm fine this time.”

 

“OKAY! THAT'S GOOD BECAUSE IF YOU WEREN'T THEN I WOULD HAVE TO- ER... I'M NOT ACTUALLY SURE WHAT I CAN DO, BUT I'D HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!” Papyrus declared, and you could sense frustration behind the forced optimism. You felt terrible for it, but you didn't know what to do for him. Flowey's plan so far was working smoothly, but you didn't really trust him. Sans was sketchy as well, leaving so many vague warnings all over the place that you couldn't NOT trip over some problem or another, leaving you open to be blackmailed by Flowey.

 

“Yeah...” You mumbled.

 

And meanwhile, Papyrus was left completely out... you were dating him and you had a billion of secrets you were keeping from him. This was far from ideal. In fact, it did not feel okay at all. Your heart was squeezing and jumping like a jackrabbit, and you were shifting in place because even as you were thinking about this, you wanted nothing more to run to where Frisk and Amber was being kept even as the plan was now you'd have to ditch Papyrus.

 

“Hey...” Your mouth felt dry suddenly, as you seriously contemplated telling him everything. Yet, if you did this, he wouldn't be safe. More people in danger. Could he be in danger if he didn't know what was happening either? You hoped Sans was keeping an eye on him, given the close call at the beach, but you couldn't tell.

 

“I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CAN TELL THERE'S SOMETHING BOTHERING YOU BUT! I CAN WAIT UNTIL YOU'VE COLLECTED YOUR THOUGHTS.” Papyrus announced, meriting a short laugh before you rubbed deeply into your eyesockets. The pressure against your eyes felt good. Reminded you that most of the things you felt in the dreams were going to slough off like sweat in the shower, and you reinforced your confidence.

 

Your mouth still felt really dry though.

 

“WhatwouldyousayifIwasstillgoingthroughwithFlowey'splan?” You finally said in a single exhaled breath. Papyrus looked confused for a moment, before figuring out what you said.

 

“WELL... I DON'T WANT YOU TO DO SOMETHING SO RISKY WHEN YOU'RE LOSING HP. BUT, IF YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO IT, THEN I'D RATHER BE HELPING.” Papyrus looked up to the ceiling as he thought aloud. You nodded, and felt a shaky hiccuping laugh bubble out.

 

“That's what I thought.”

 

~

 

It's not like you ran away from home, but walking out in the darkened city much later at night, with Papyrus and Flowey tailing you probably wasn't on the list of approved risk taking behaviors. That being said, you've known very few things to be okay with them, mostly restricted to playing with strange animals. So hey, maybe you could argue that you were still on the approved list of risk-taking activities since humans count as animals!

 

You uttered a short humorless laugh to the night air around you, following your route to the house you'd discovered in the dream before. You passed the park, and then the school. Inside the neighborhood was where things got sketchy, even with Frisk's soul beaming as much light through the twilight city of souls, you couldn't remember details at all.

 

You stopped, and looked around to get your bearings. The houses around you looked to be in a perfectly ordinary neighborhood, someone had kid's toys left in the front lawn of one house. Another house had a strangely elaborate gnome collection which either left you giggling or staring back at some of the more sinister gnome statues. You were sticking out like a sore thumb like this though, even if you wanted to be conspicuous, just waiting around in the literal front lawn of these houses looking lost was bound to be suspicious.

 

After all, they weren't supposed to know that you were trying to get captured. You spotted some bushes and dived into them, rolling around as you leaned on your elbows and pretended you could actually hide in them. Truth be told, there were a bunch of gaps in them were you could see out- meaning that people could see you too. There was no more room to roll, so crawling it was, the process tedious and uncomfortable. Dirt was digging in your hands and knees, the bushes caught on your hair or threatened to poke your eye. Seriously, who does this?

 

You reached the driveway of the house whose bushes you were hiding in, and looking about you ran forward and jumped into another set of bushes. The feeling of being exposed and then dashing in another 'safe' place made you kinda giddy, and you had to muffle a goofy grin. Oh right, that's the fun part.

 

Getting into the groove of playing peek-a-boo with the bushes, you almost forgot to count the number of houses you've passed by. Based on your memory of the SURVEY, you thought there might've been about five houses before you got to the captor's house. Maybe you could run a CHECK when you got there? You were three houses in the neighborhood, so then...

 

Four...

 

You ran across another a driveway and dove, scraping your face on some branches. Nope, sneaking wasn't fun anymore.

 

Five...

 

Now that the stinging faded away from your cheek, you were already getting pumped up to try infiltrating the house. After all, you didn't HAVE to get kidnapped if you could literally waltz in and waltz out again, right? You really hoped you didn't get charged with breaking in a random stranger's house though... you went on tiptoe to look inside the window, but you only saw a dark kitchen. Huh, okay definitely not there.

 

The grass whispered, and you whirled around in paranoia. After getting dirty and rolling in the bushes, you almost managed to forget being bait. Your heartrate was thumping steadily from stalking through the neighborhood like a dork, but it took on a frenzied quality, and you began to feel a little queasy at the sight of the backyard gate. Well, no better place to get kidnapped right?

 

Papyrus and Flowey was following, so this would be fine. It's scary, but you had it under control, right? Especially given that they knew where this was at now, so they could come back with reinforcements while you'd maintained a steady communication with them and-

 

The distinct feeling of something entering your neck with a piercing unexpected force made you yelp and turn around to punch blindly at the source. The thing exited your neck at a painful angle, but you were too adrenalized by the thought of what's in it to give it much thought, your eyes going wide in realization.

 

You can't dream if you're knocked ou-

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, we all knew it was gonna happen, so hopefully Flowey's actually got your back. Which isn't the most reassuring thing in the world, I know.


	52. ...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything is a blur.

Disorienting, this isolating darkness.

 

You fell forward with no sense of where you were going or where you came from. The concrete weighed heavily against your foot, the pressure up against your knee forcing you to buckle forward and catch yourself again with the other leg you'd forgotten about and yet felt intuitively correct for it to be there. The sensations melted away.

 

You could hear,

 

“...girl.......up.......ake?!” Annoyed.

 

“...con...tent...dos............wake......lerance.....incre...”

 

“.......nster....vers.....age.....”

 

Your neck throbbed, raw. Mouth dry. Movement...herculean... thankless. Sleep... RECOVER. Resonant pain pricked sharply to your left... a drumbeat pulse...

 

...thief...

 

… of nagging...

 

…...war-?......n-...no?...ngh...

 

Your thoughts scattered and skittered and tittered. Lurching to one side only for the ship to tilt the other direction and send you tumbling before hitting something solid. Drowning in the disassociation of your frantic mind, you clung to this thing with as much force as you can muster, relieved as your spinning self began fixing in place.

 

Safe?

 

Home... rest. RECOVER...

 

 


	53. Awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You finally get a chance to take stock of the situation.

You emerged from oblivion wishing very much that you didn't have to be part of the body that was you. Your mouth was drier than you've ever experienced, thick and sticking, reluctant to peel from the roof of your mouth. You could feel your arm and neck throb with what you could only assume was the work of the unmentionable. You opened your eyes and the pain of seeing the trackmarks in your elbow bordered by the blossoming hematoma, was quickly drowned out by the resonating pain of having vision. You screwed your eyes shut and crammed the heel of your hands into your eyesockets to shut it off.

 

Something touched your arm and you kicked out defensively, only for the force to carry from both legs and flopped over like a fish having a seizure. You blinked owlishly, eyes watering from the pain of your drug-induced hangover. You were bound, zip ties over your wrists, and yet another round of duct tape over your legs, explaining how you couldn't move properly. You tested the restraints, seeing that there was a little give, which was more than you'd dared hope. Yet, it was less than what you needed as well, as the movement quickly drained your energy and with duct tape over your mouth, you were forced to breath through your nose in quick noisy gusts. Something touched your hip.

 

You swung onto your side to face the thing that touched you only to find Amber next to you. She looked tired, her arm sporting a similar large bruise, though it looked faded in comparison to the one in your arm. Her mouth and limbs were also covered up by duct tape and zip ties, though her arms were pulled behind her back and there was some redness around her mouth as if it'd been removed and replaced. She looked unkempt and sickly from captivity, and you felt anger spark in your chest and yet it was quelled without the energy to maintain it. You were just so _groggy_. You did your best to hug close to her, wiggling over before placing your head on her shoulder. You leaned more heavily than you intended to, exhaustion making the world spin even as you remained still, and she tilted to hug your head with hers.

 

Looking around, you could see two made empty beds, a TV set and mini-fridge, and in the opposite corner of the room Papyrus and Frisk seemed to be asleep. Your magic crawling at a snail's pace managed to dimly illuminate their souls, suggesting that they weren't just knocked out. Fuck. Did he charge in after you were drugged in the struggle? And where the hell was Flowey in all of this? It looked like all of you had been dragged into a motel, suggesting that the people that had taken Amber and Frisk had flown the coop after drugging you. Who knows where you were really?

 

“Sleeping beauty is awake.” A voice rung through the silent room, and you flinched into Amber from the fresh wave of pain that the sound brought on, but also because you had a pretty good idea who they were talking about. A shadow detaching from the edge of the bed caught your attention, and the person approached you, mouth pressed close to a walkie talkie. There was something familiar about him, but you couldn't quite think of what it was.

 

He reached out and you tensed, staring hard at them, swearing to yourself you were going to bite them if you got the chance to shed the duct tape. As if your intentions reached them, he paused in his movements. “Hold on.”

 

You couldn't maintain a coherent thought, let alone go anywhere. Why bother making the order?

 

He turned to the sink to turn a faucet and grab one of those plastic wrapped water cups that always came with a motels. You vaguely wondered how they managed to hide four unconscious people from the cleaning service. How did they do it in the movies..?

 

As your mind wandered uselessly, the person moved with a glass of water, reminding you of how thirsty you were. How long can the average human go without water? Three days? You could easily believe you'd been out two days at least. Your tongue was much too large for your mouth. He reached for you again, and remained still.

 

“Before I do this, you gotta believe me when I say that you really shouldn't scream.” He warned you, their eyes boring into your eyes to impress the heaviness of what they were saying. One hand reached behind him to tug out the hand of the largest handgun you'd ever seen before. Not that you've seen a lot, but the distinctive look of this one suggested that it was something heavy duty like a magnum pistol. Upon the incredulous look that must have passed through your face, he looked down from your face nodding with a halfway embarrassed look on his face. “Yeah, it's kinda overboard for looking after two drugged up girls and a kid, but your uh...”

 

He glanced at Papyrus. “That skeleton kinda spooks the others. Honestly, they think it did some sort of Jedi mindtrick, but from what I've seen it can't Jedi his way out of a paper bag.” His hand came up to your face, and the urge to bite returned at full force. He ripped the tape off your face in one go like you knew he would, and felt your lip rip with it. His eyes went wide as blood welled up, “Shit, shit, ahhh I'll get some toilet paper for that.”

 

He put the water cup in your shaky hands, and with the taste of iron seeping into your mouth, past your mouth too, collecting at your chin, you chugged the water. Your mouth slowly reconstituting, you prodded the injury with your tongue, finding that the duct tape simply ripped the skin off of your chapped lips. A thought floated to the surface, making it just past 'still thirsty' and popping into your mind-

 

They're making a lot of mistakes, aren't they? Tying people up with duct tape, setting up base at someone's house only to kidnap more people and then fleeing the area.

 

The false calm that the drugs had forced into you rippled, the chemical stillness. Mistakes... that could be good and bad. Convinced there was something you were missing, you scrutinized the person closely as he came back, taking the bloody plastic cup from your hands and pressing the dampened tissues to your chin and wiping the bright red stream up. There was something familiar about him. You couldn't quite... no, the image was gone before you could bring it to your conscious thought.

 

You croaked hoarsely, “More water?”

 

“Nooo... not yet, if you drink too much at once, you'll vomit.” He muttered, dabbing away at your lip. Like a bolt of lightning, you thought of the guy throwing up at a fair, and pushed yourself backwards for a moment in blind panic. They really WERE stalking you, even at the fair!

 

“Hey, it's going to hurt worse when I have to put the tape back on.” The fair puker grumbled. “Try to sit still, sheesh.”

 

“Why'd you have to go on a ride that made you puke?” you mumbled unthinkingly, and could have slapped yourself in that moment. Why let them know you've spotted their mistakes?

 

“What..?” He looked up into your face, and processed your question. “Ugh, that's right you saw me... you'll definitely have to have tape over your mouth later...”

 

“What do you mean?” You half-asked and half-demanded in your alarm, but he was already reaching for the duct tape, pulling it out with an obscenely loud ripping noise that you swore should've been heard by the neighboring motel rooms. You leaned back eyeing it distrustfully, not wanting to be taped up again. “Uh, why don't you have a proper gag?”

 

“You're a weird girl. First you say yes to a monster marriage proposal, and now you're asking questions that has nothing to do with 'who are you' or 'hey why did you take me' or 'can I go to the bathroom'?” He complained. “Honestly, I'm starting to feel like you have no interest in what's happening.”

 

Uh, they think you're engaged? Oh right, Papyrus's 'marriage proposal' at the fair. You hesitantly raised your hand, forced to move your arm with the motion, “Can I go to the bathroom?”

 

“NO! You're just gonna use it to perform some sort of elaborate escape plan.” Geez, how many comic books has this guy read? You honestly just needed to stretch your legs, you felt like you lost circulation in all your limbs a while ago.

 

You were pushed back by Amber, who moved her body to partially block yours and with as much emphasis as she could muster tied up, she shook her head at the guy and stared him down meaningfully. Hesitantly, he reached over, and pulled the tape off in one go and she hissed in pain before demanding in a low whisper. “You are NOT putting tape over her face before giving her something to eat and more than a lousy fucking cup of water. Not after nearly killing her with a goddamn needle!”

 

“Killing?” You could hear more whispering movement in the house, and in the corner of your eyes you could see Papyrus sit up. His eyelights twinkled oddly, the light forming rays and you realized your vision was unfocusing again.

 

“You nearly bled out from your carotid artery-” she jostled you roughly, a note of hysteria ringing through her voice. “-Hey! Stay awake!” Through no small effort, you combated unconsciousness, though your vision continued to lose focus.

 

“Okay, okay, shut up now.” The puker slapped tape back onto her mouth again and you could hear an agitated growl of frustration through it. He turned to get the glass of water, and you looked to Amber's face then her hands. Almost absentmindedly, you reached over to tug at her zip tie, trying to figure out how to undo it, but she moved it away quickly. The shadow of your kidnapper was turning.

 

The door inside the hotel opened unexpectedly, and another person entered the room with crinkling cellophane. For a quick moment, you saw daytime before the door closed again and the room gave way to souls. You blinked rapidly but the room refused to cease fading, Papyrus's ribcage housing a lavender soul, his own conspicuously missing before another soul stepped forward in a wavering form... lavender.

 

A feeling of dread dropped low into your stomach, and you nearly cowered in the blackened room. The other soul advanced forward and you pulled at the zip ties around your wrist until it chafed and pain began lacing through your skin. Your vision sharpened in time to see the hand heading for your face and you jerked away before your composure returned, bravery urging you to look your nighttime nemesis in the face.

 

“Hey Kitty-kitty.” The woman cooed softly, as she placed a hand on your cheek. She had high cheekbones, brown eyes glued onto your face, her lips slightly askew as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. “What happened to you, cutie pie? Did the big bad meanie beat up on you?”

 

“No! The tape tore skin off.” He grumbled. “And you're one to talk, miss stick-'em-in-the-neck. Didn't that uncle of yours tell you not to puncture the trachea in a fight?”

 

“I didn't, Jack.” She growled, and from her tone, that was the end of that. She pulled open the packaging and put a miniature cookie to your mouth. “I'd give you some chips, but that looks pretty raw. Don't want to be cruel.”

 

Like a coil in your mind, you wanted nothing more than to snap and headbutt her. You did not want to eat. You wanted to take nothing from her. Instead, you asked, “Can I have some water?”

 

“Yeah, I was on that before you came in.” Said Jack, moving in to place the water glass into your hands. She frowned at him, and a chill crept through your spine, feeling the hairs on your neck prickle. You drank the water quickly and then set it aside, seeing movement in your peripheral vision.

 

Frisk was gesturing.

 

They didn't move otherwise, or sit up to indicate that they were awake, but you could see them slowly making gestures. First pulling away their hand from their body, and then spelling individual letters. You focused, glancing out of the corner of your eyes as you tried to catch what they said.

 

“Get. G.A.S.T.E.R.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason, this chapter did NOT want to be written. :\ Sorry it took so long to get posted! I hope it's not too terrible.

**Author's Note:**

> This is just the beginning chapter, and I wasn't sure at first what I wanted to do, just that I wanted to keep writing after a mildly positive response on here. From here on out, there's probably going to be a better sense of "direction" going. I'll add or subtract tags as I go along, because I'm a firm believer in letting my characters drag me along for their story. The tags describe the general idea I have floating in my head right now.


End file.
